The Whimsical Tales of the Royally Screwed
by AndreosCain
Summary: Follow the adventures of Andreos Cain, a gun for hire as he winds up coming into contact with the secret organisation known as XCOM. Cain's life of shooting for the highest bidder is suddenly changed when he is "convinced" into joining up to defend earth from an all too real alien threat.
1. Chapter 1

**The Whimsical Tales of the Royally Screwed**

 **By Andrew J Norton**

 **Introduction**

"This was a really shitty day to quit drinking."

\- Lieutenant Andreos 'Joker' Cain

To say that things didn't exactly go according to plan would be a fairly accurate description. Or at least it would be, if you didn't include all the betrayal, secrecy, manipulation and killing. But enough about what I did, that's still to come. In all honesty, the start event that lead me to battling alien Gods can be singled out as when I was wrongly dishonourably discharged from the RAF regiment. A few, well, more than a few deaths were involved. I won't bore you with the details of why I was shunned and exiled by my country men, but needless to say, I was more than a little pissed off at them.

Being in the military for a majority of my life left me with very few skills other than the ability to shoot people and lead soldiers into battle. Which made me the perfect candidate for mercenary work. I had met a number of people whilst in the RAF which gave me a lot of contacts. Admittedly, most of them had been shooting at me at some point. They had often caused me to dive for cover while I tried to work out how the Hell I'm going to get out of this one. Fortunately, being a heavy trooper, I was not only carrying my trusty light machine gun, but I also carried around a rocket launcher which, apart from being bloody heavy, made dealing with enemies rather easy.

I got a message from an old friend who had contacted me, after I had told him that I was looking for work. He set me up with a group who needed some hired muscle. Now I know I'm in no way the tallest person around, by any stretch of the imagination, but I know how to take orders and set up a fairly decent ambush, so I was accepted quite quickly. I mean I was never truly trusted, seeing as I was shooting at these types of people in a previous profession, but they saw my usefulness and I got paid, so we had an understanding.

I stayed with them for a few years. I lost count of the number of missions that I actually went on with the team, but it was very easily into the three figure range. We raided compounds, defended outposts, ambushed convoys and everything in-between. I was rather good at it to be honest. A particular mission stands out to me, and probably was the deciding moment that put me on the road that lead me to being the person that I now am.

 **Chapter 1**

"There is no problem that cannot be solved by the use of high explosives."

\- Sergeant Dennis "Leeroy" Blackburn

Have you ever woken up and just _known_ today was going to be bad? I have, on a number of occasions. You can't quite put your finger on what it is, then it hits you like a freight train and my God, don't you wish you'd just stayed in bed. Well, like a fool, I ignored that feeling and got on with my day.

My team and I had been given news that we were to be ambushing a heavily armed convoy carrying an important piece of cargo. I thought nothing of it. The group that I'd been working with for the last five years had done this type of job more times in a year than most students do their own laundry the entire time they're at university. The convoy, we had been told, was compromised of two HMV's, two armoured personnel carriers and a heavy goods vehicle, which was carrying our prize. We didn't ask what the item was, what it did or what it was for. It wasn't our place to ask. All we did was what we were paid to do.

I was in my bunk at the outpost in Germany, when I received the news that we had a job. I was reading some God awful book about a world where an alien armada comes to earth seeking to colonise our planet. Stupid, I know right. I was just about to put it down when my comrade in arms walked in through the door way.

"Cain, we've got a job." He had a thick Russian accent, which suited him well. He was a tall, broad man with scars here, there and everywhere but the only one that really stood out was the one down his left eye. He had told me at least seven different stories of how he received it, whilst we had drinks over card games. He seemed to enjoy keeping me guessing. To be honest, I never really cared about the scar, but he gave off a sense of charisma that had a knack for keeping my attention.

"What is it Viktor?" I asked, not really wanting to leave my bunk.

"Not sure. Get dressed. Marco wants to brief us all in 10."

"Well we wouldn't want to keep the big guy waiting, now, would we?"

"He'll have your balls as a trophy if he hears you say that." Viktor said with a very sly grin, his yellowing teeth breaking through his battered leathery face.

"Oh, he can try." I replied with a similarly sly grin. With that, Viktor left down the hall and I got dressed. I put on my usual combat fatigues. All fairly standard stuff you'd expect for a mercenary; combat boots, disruptive pattern material trousers, shirt and jacket and my own personal touch, my trusty rapier. I acquired it on a mission into France. Raiding museums for art can get boring. But a sword… now _that's_ interesting. It was 3 feet of reinforced steel with one razor sharp edge that led to a needle like point. And it never left my side. It gave me a sense of comfort. Viktor told me I was a fool for carrying it around, but it had saved my life on more than a few occasions, so I would be damned if anyone was going to take it away from me now. Once I was ready I left my room and went down the dark corridor to the briefing room. My room was at the far end of the corridor from the briefing room, opposite the storage room. Rumour beheld that in there was a hoover of some sort, but I've never seen it used. I passed 10 other doors on my way, which led to rooms similar to mine, each belonging to a comrade in arms. I got to the doorway of the briefing room. Like always it was open to the bunk corridor, seeing as that was the only way into or out of accommodation space.

The briefing room itself was about twenty feet by twenty feet, with 11 chairs, one chart of the French Alps and a dart board with Hugh Jackman's face pinned to it. Inside the briefing room were nine men all dressed similarly to me, minus the rapier of course. Of the nine, only one wasn't sitting down. Marco. He was the boss, no mistake there. He had more experience than the rest of us combined when it came to jobs. He was well into his late 70's although some of us believed he's actually been around so long as to have been in the battle of Waterloo. He never shut up about it. He claimed that he loved history. We all thought he was just remembering the good old days. Marco had short, greying hair, but still retained some of his youthfulness. The most striking thing about him though, was he was only five foot tall. But don't let that fool you. He's taken down men over a foot taller than him in less than three punches.

"Right, Cain's here, that leaves Smith and Jones." Marco growled.

"They're coming." Replied Johnson. He was a smug man with an air of arrogance. He claimed to be the best sniper in the modern world. I've yet to see such talent. Hell, I can hit a target further away with my LGM.

"I'm going to kill them if they're not here in the next three minutes."

"Calm down boss, they'll be here. What's all the hurry anyway?" Asked Crowden.

"There's a time limit on this one and we're going to need all of you to pull this one off." Answered Marco. He seemed jittery, which could be good or bad. He only got like this if there was a very large cash payment, or he was genuinely worried. The latter I've only ever seen once, and this was when he heard his ex-wife was on route.

"How long?" Asked Viktor.

"Less than 10 hours." Marco grumbled. He was getting impatient. This wasn't a good sign. Things didn't tend to go well for the people who upset Marco. Two people came through the door. A man, average height, in his early twenties and a woman, shorter, of similar age. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a tight bun on the top of her head. She looked angry. I would have been too if I was catching up on 3 days of missed sleep, but I guess that comes with the job. They were both wearing their flight suits. It was rare they were ever out of them, except when they were working out in the gym downstairs.

"This better be worth me getting up." Scowled Jones. She leaned against the wall opposite Marco and the chart.

"Oh it will be." Replied Marco, holding her stare. "Right, everyone, listen up. We've got a job. There's a convoy heading through the French Alps towards this military bunker. It's carrying a piece cargo in a heavy goods vehicle that our employer wants. The mission is to retrieve this item and take it to the drop off location, here." Marco pointed to a small farm on the Southern side of the map. "The convoy is protected by two HMV's and two APC's, meaning you're going to have to be fully kitted out for this one. You'll be dropped off near the road that the convoy will be travelling down. You'll set up an ambush, kill the guards and take the cargo. Cain you'll be in charge of the ambush. Any questions?" _Wonderful_. I was in charge. It's not that I didn't like being in command, but there's always one idiot who thinks it'll be a good idea to do his own thing.

"What compensation are we looking at for this?" Asked Thomson.

"Enough that we'll be able to retire." Replied Marco. Well shit me. I can tell you, if I wasn't feeling the pressure before, I was now.

"How long do we have to prep gear?" Viktor asked with his deep Russian voice.

"One hour."

"What _is_ the cargo?" asked Smith.

"Unknown. It's a container about two feet wide and four feet tall."

"How professional are these guards?" I asked. I've been in more than a few firefights to know that professionals are predictable, it's the amateurs who are dangerous.

"Unknown. They're a group we've never heard of before."

"Name?" Quizzed Viktor.

"EXALT." Replied Marco. "Any other questions?" There were none. "No? Good. You've got one hour till dust off. Get ready." With that we left to prepare. Since we were all dressed, all that was really needed was getting the combat armour and weapons. We all had our own set of flak armour which some of us had personalised in some way or another. Viktor had sewn a Russian star onto his right arm. He said it gave him good luck. I've never been an optimist, but a bit of luck never hurt. The way I was feeling however about this job, though, I wanted as much luck as possible.

The team itself was a collection of troops from all over the world. All had their own reasons for being here. All had their stories. Most of them were dull as fuck however. I mean one or two wanted to flee their countries for political reasons and I think Gunther was meant to be on trial for War Crimes, but hey, who hasn't been these days? What made our team of nine so effective was our diversity when it came to combat. Of the nine, there were two heavies, three assaults, two supports and two snipers. The heavies, were armed as such because of the big guns that we carried around so much. One light machine gun and a rocket launcher per person can be very effective in the right situation. The assaults were the "happy go lucky" sort of people that enjoyed charging the enemy positions. Lord knows why anyone would be that stupid, but somehow they managed to dodge enemy fire long enough to take them out. The supports were the people to befriend however. They were the ones who went around helping others who'd taken a hit, and that happened quite a bit in our line of work. The last group were the snipers. Cowardly bastards who stay at the back, because they're afraid of taking a bit of fire. That said, they are our eye in the sky when it comes to taking down the enemy.

Once we all got our combat gear on, we went out of the compound towards the helipad where Smith and Jones were doing final checks on our Merlin Class helicopter. The single propeller aircraft had been our method of transport for a number of years now. Smith never told anyone how he got it, but hinted it was something to do with a card game, three chickens and a priest. Regardless, it was now our transport to the ambush site, where we were going to acquire our retirement fund. We stowed our weapons, strapped in and set off. Oh how I should have just stayed in my bunk…

I was jolted awake by a sudden bump of the helicopter. I couldn't have been asleep for more than an hour, and by the looks of things I wasn't the only one who had drifted off before we arrived. Hicks was also fast asleep. It was hard to miss, to be honest. His snoring could be heard over the engines of the Merlin which said quite a bit. Viktor was looking out of the window opposite him. His knuckles were white. He hated flying, but it was the only method of getting where we needed to be in such a short amount of time.

"Twenty minutes to drop off." Jones called. "Get ready."

"Somebody wake up Hicks." I shouted. Johnson gave him a friendly slap and Hicks jolted awake with a startle before he remembered where he was. The twenty minutes flew by and before we knew it, we were jumping off the helicopter. Having the helicopter would be too problematic if it was to stay (big target and all), so it took off. It would only return once the cargo was secured.

The Canyon was, thankfully, just like the images that we had been going through, back at the compound. This made everyone's job a lot easier, but most of all mine. I've said before I have a knack for setting up ambushes and this was going to be the big one. From what we were told, we'd be out manned 2:1 and out gunned by a hell of a lot. Never the less, we had been given a job and we were going to see it through.

I ordered the eight men to their respective locations. The road led straight through a cannon with steep, but climbable sides. About 30 metres up the hills on both sides of the road, a forest began. This would be where we would all be hiding. On the left hand side, there would be one assault, one heavy, a sniper and a support. Whilst on the other side would be two assaults, a sniper, a support and myself, as the heavy. The idea was to take out the front and the rear vehicles, thereby trapping the convoy on the road. The two teams would then supress the guards until the heavies could take out their armour. Once the APC's were dealt with, the assaults and supports would move in to secure the cargo while the rest of the team provided covering fire. Simple, right? I was happy with the plan, as were the rest of them. Or at least if they did have any issues they never voiced them. With everyone now in position we waited until the convoy came into view. We didn't have to wait long.

Less the fifteen minutes after we had all set up, the convoy came into view. It looked just how I imagined it would. In the front was a HMV with a 50. Cal machine gun on top. It was carrying five guards; one driver, one gunner and three foot soldiers. Behind that was an APC. It was an old BTR-4 series that were used by the Ukrainian army. It was an eight wheeled hulk that carried a 30mm auto cannon that could tare through most lightly armoured vehicles without a second thought. Behind that was the HGV that was carrying our prize. It was a full eighteen wheeler, with what looked like reinforced armoured sides. After the lorry was another HMV and finally at the back was a second BTR-4. This was going to be interesting. I signalled Hicks to wait until the convoy was between the two teams before firing his rocket. His job was to take out the lead vehicle whilst I took out the rear. From there, the plan was proceed as appropriate. The convoy approached the ambush site, unaware of what was about to happen to them. I primed my launcher and the rest of the team cocked their weapons. Hicks waited until the lead vehicle was in position and then all Hell broke loose.

Hicks fired his rocket. It travelled straight into the side of the lead HMV and the resulting explosion sent shrapnel and flying car parts all over the road. The main chassis of the car, flew into the air about 10 feet and landed in front of the BTR-4 which slammed on its breaks at the sudden obstacle in its path. The turret on top now tracking the smoke trail left by the rocket back to Hick's position. My rocket was not quite as successful. It hit the side of the rear APC with a fantastically hot fireball, which blew out the wheels on the left hand side of the tank. It veered wildly to its left and came to a halt almost 90 degrees to the road. It was crippled, but not dead. The HGV and the remaining HMV both stopped abruptly and the occupants disembarked. Four men from the remaining HMV, all armed with assault rifles, got out of the vehicle and took cover around it. The man, operating the 50. Cal didn't need to be given any orders and opened fire on the wood line where my team were stationed. The tracer rounds tracked back and forth as he tried to find a target amongst the undergrowth. The rear compartment of the front APC opened and 4 men, all armed similarly to the others, took up firing positions around the HGV and the APC that was now unloading it's ammunition into the treeline where Hicks and Viktor were stationed. With targets now aplenty for both sides of the ambush, the main fire fight began.

The assaults began to edge forward down the hill side, towards to vehicles while the support men and snipers provided covering fire. Johnson, who was positioned near me, aimed down his scope and with an audible thud, fired his sniper. The result was the 50. Cal on the rear HMV went silent. He then repositioned and aimed up another shot. I could see everything that I needed to. Everything was going according to plan. I loaded up a second rocket and took aim at the damaged APC. Its turret was now searching for whatever had wounded it. It spied something and opened fire. The tree, less than 4 metres away exploded in a shower of splinters as the 30mm shells ripped through it. I've never cared for trees, but I felt a sort of sorrow for it. At least until a fairly large splinter slammed into me. That's when I came to my senses. I wasn't a bloody tree hugger. Screw that thing. I was on a job. I lined up my rocket and fired my remaining missile at the APC. It hit the tank in the gap just between the turret and the hull. The shot was exactly what I needed. The turret blew off the top of the tank and landed some 10 feet behind the vehicle and the explosion tore through the hull of the APC, cooking off the magazines inside. The secondary explosion was even more impressive than the first with a fireball almost twenty feet across. I allowed myself a grin and switched to my light machine gun. I aimed at the 3 remaining guards from the rear HMV and laid down supressing fire.

"Viktor and Hicks have both been hit." I heard Crowden shout over the radio. I cursed. Not only because Viktor was a friend of mine, but also because Hicks still hadn't fired his second rocket. This was bad, because now we had an APC, with no method of dealing with it.

"Crowden, can you help them?" I asked.

"Negative, too much fire on me."

"Johnson! Give Crowden some support." I ordered. No reply. "Johnson, do it now." I looked over to his position. There lay the body of Johnson. His head was now a bloodied mess. He must have taken a round from the rear APC before it was destroyed. I was beginning to have issues about this. I've often found that just before shit is about to hit the fan, I get this feeling in the back of my mind and start to shudder. Sometimes I shudder without knowing why and then (unfortunately) I get a reason. Well needless to say, I shuddered there and then.

"I'm in deep sh-…" Crowden was cut off. There was a crump of an explosion from his position. One of the guards must have gotten close enough to throw a grenade. This was not going well. I was about to give another order when I realised I was the only one left shooting still.

"Biggs? Harper? Anybody?" I called down the radio. Nothing. Silence. It was at that point when I realised something was very wrong. I was about to get up when a very distinct feeling came upon me. A gun barrel was pressed against the back of my head. It was still warm.

"Get up." I heard the man say. Now I don't know if you've ever been threatened before. If you haven't I can honestly say, it's not very nice. Still, he was in a position to kill me, but had chosen not to. I thought this must have been my lucky day. I slowly got to my feet. "Start walking." I began to walk towards the road where the remaining guards were waiting. Of the eight that had disembarked from the vehicles only three remained. I was taken to the road side and forced onto my knees. Guns were aimed at me as I knelt before them. The guards brought out someone from behind the still functioning APC. I was filled with relief to see that it was Viktor. He was still alive. He had clearly been hit though, and was losing blood fast. He gave me a wiry grin. I think he was trying to make me feel better. We'd gotten out of worse situations before. He probably felt this was going to be no different. Viktor was forced to his knees next to me and together we stared back at the four men with their rifles trained on us.

"It's clear Sir. Two survivors." One of the gunmen said over his radio. A man in his late 50's exited out of the lead APC. He was wearing combat fatigues, but wore them sharply. He was clearly an officer of some sort. What rank though, was impossible to tell. He was a tall man, around six foot and wore short cropped hair that was beginning to grey. He stood in front of the gunmen.

"Who are you?" He asked us. We didn't answer. "I hate having to repeat myself." He pulled out his pistol and shot Viktor straight between the eyes. My heart stopped. The man who I'd become so close to in our years together now lay dead next to me. I have never felt such a mixture of sorrow and anger as in that moment. The officer turned to face me. "Who are you and what do you know of our cargo?" I looked at the man square in the face. I said nothing. He shook his head. "You are such an ignorant fool." He tightened his grip on the trigger. And for a second time in one day, all Hell broke loose. The arm that was holding the pistol trained at my head became a bloody stump right before my eyes. The pistol and the officer who was now clutching his mangled arm fell to the floor. A rocket hurtled into the side of the remaining APC, blowing it into large pieces of flaming shrapnel. The four gunmen that were watching us fell one by one as bullets tore through them from somewhere behind me. I was not concerned about them however. I rose to my feet. The guard who'd marched me to the road hadn't removed my sword, and it was that very weapon which I was now drawing. The officer, began crawling away from me with his one good arm, towards the HGV. I followed and stood over him. He looked at me. His face white with fear.

"Who am I?" I asked rhetorically. "I'm Andreos _fucking_ Cain." I thrust my sword into him. He gasped as my sword pierced his heart, before slumping to the floor. I withdrew my sword and sheathed it. I turned around to face my 'would be' saviours to find yet more guns pointed at me. Five soldiers stood behind me in armour that looked almost alien.

"Who are you?" Asked a woman with a French accent. She had the rank of Captain on her shoulder.

"Oh no. Not this bloody game again." I replied, crossing my arms. There was a moment's pause as if she was a little surprised by response. The soldiers in front of me were all varied, but at the same time all similar. Their armour was all made of the same style, but it seemed to be moulded to them in a way that looked unhuman. Almost a second skin.

The woman, who was clearly in charge, took off her helmet and held it under her arm. "I am Captain Annette Durand." she said, her voice drowning with forced authority. She was attractive, to say the least, in her mid-twenties. Her auburn hair was tied up in a neat bun, without a strand out of place.

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow and smiled, dryly. "Andreos Cain. At your service." I bowed mockingly.

"What were you doing here?" asked a man to her side, this one a sergeant. He scanned me up and down, unsure of what to make of me. The two soldiers on the ends were scanning the tree lines for any other people that had survived the firefight. Their weapons moved in line with their eyes. These were clearly an elite group.

"Sight-seeing." The look on their faces told me they weren't a fun group. "I was sent here to retrieve the cargo of that lorry. What are you doing here?"

"That's classified." The captain answered.

"Well I don't suppose you know what's in there?" I gestured to the HGV.

"That's classified." She repeated.

"Talkative bunch you lot are." I said dryly. The captain cocked her head to the side. Her brown eyes stared at me or what felt like an eternity a she tried to decide what she was going to do with me. Considering all that had gone on here, I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd just put a bullet in me and left.

"Are you the one who was in charge of this attack?" She asked, finally.

"That's classified." I answered. See how they liked it. As it turned out, she liked it a lot more so than I was expecting. She smirked at me.

"Well, Cain, it looks like your day hasn't exactly gone well. What are your plans now?" The captain asked looking around at the ambush site. "Your team are dead and I see no method of extraction for you."

"I was going to click my heels together and say _there's no place like home_." The captain chuckled to herself. The other members of her team glanced at each other, briefly. It was only for a second, but it was very noticeable.

"How would you like to work with us? We could use a man like you. You would be paid well and you would be respected as one of us." I can honestly say I was tempted. I _could_ go back to the compound, but then what? Everyone was dead apart from the pilots, Marco and myself. No. The answer was clear.

"What sort of work would it be?" I asked. "Oh wait don't tell me. _That's classified_?" She smiled again. These were an odd bunch of people. They were a very professional, elite military group, but I had never heard of them. That makes two in one day, if I included EXALT, who turned out to be _much_ more than I was expecting.

"It'll be worth it Cain. Trust me." I looked at her, trying to gauge what she was trying to do. There was a sense of truth in her eyes.

"Fine." I said after a moment or two. "I'll come with you. But what's going to happen to all these bodies and vehicles?"

"Leave that to us." Durand said. She nodded to one of her team. He grabbed his radio and began speaking into it. I looked around at the ambush site. There were three destroyed vehicles, about twenty dead bodies and round casings littering the floor. If these people had the power to cover this up, I was a little concerned at what else they could do.

"On your heads be it." I said. I looked up to the sky as Durand started to issue orders to her team. It was beginning to grow dark. The first few streaks of light were being replaced with a purple smudge as if the sky had been bruised. They escorted me to an aircraft the likes of which I've never seen before. It was a small aircraft, no bigger than the Merlin I arrived in. It was a mixture of both plane and helicopter. The wings and shape were in the design of a plane, but in the wings themselves were a pair of turbines that allowed it to land and take off vertically. Being from an RAF background I was heartily impressed. They called it a _Sky Ranger_. What a weird name. That said, I've flown in gryphons, squirrels and pumas, so I guess it wasn't the worst name in the world. There were six seats in the back. Five of which were taken up. I stowed my weapon, sat in the spare seat and strapped in. The cargo from the back of the HGV was brought on board and when we were all ready, the pilots took off. Looking back now, I can't help think that Viktor was the lucky one in all of this. He never had to deal with all the things I've gone through. The panicking, the running, the bowel clenching fear, more running… I could go on. Yeah, he was definitely the lucky one. If only I had known at the time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Knowledge is power. Hide it well."

Major Ben "Pipothy" Hawker

Well, she wasn't lying. At least not completely. After setting off from the ambush site, aboard the Sky Ranger, we began travelling to the South. I asked where we were going, but none of them wanted to talk. They were all transfixed by the cargo that had been brought on board. What made it so special? Was it really that important? To be honest, I'm not entirely sure I wanted to know at the time. Since conversation was non-existent, I thought I should catch up on some much needed rest. The adrenalin rush a person gets when they are in any sort of fight is fantastic because it gives you a huge boost, due to all the things that your body needs to do. Fight or flight in short. The downside to that however is that afterwards it leaves the body drained and exhausted. I closed my eyes and it didn't take long for me to drift off.

When I opened my eyes, not much had changed. The five of them were still boring as hell and no one was really saying much. I looked at my watch. It had only been about 2 hours, but I felt much better for the sleep.

"Captain. How long till we get there?" I asked, hoping to finally get some talk on this mundane little trip.

"About 30 minutes." She replied.

"What am I supposed to do when I get there?" I asked, looking around at the people who were about to become my new colleagues.

"Whatever they tell you to." She looked away for a moment, as if trying to work out what to say, before continuing the conversation. "You'll be escorted to a room where you can rest. You'll then be taken to an interview room where you'll be asked a number of questions before they decide if you're the right type of guy for our organisation."

"And if I'm not?" I questioned. She smirked. Well that was hardly reassuring for me. Captain Durand was one hell of an interesting woman. Despite having such a high rank, she didn't seem like the standard officer that you come across. Something seemed odd about her too. She seemed to have some sort of flare about her that was rather, well, odd. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there was a sense of power about her that made me feel uneasy.

"If you're not, well… we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." She smiled dryly at me before turning away.

"Wonderful." I said in a rather sarcastic tone. There was a slight pause before she continued the conversation.

"Where are you from, anyway?" She inquired.

"England. Born and raised." I said with quite a bit of false enthusiasm. Durand leaned forward. The rest of her team didn't seem the slightest bit interested in me, but Durand seemed very inquisitive.

"I've never been there. Is it nice?" She asked with genuine interest.

"It rains a lot." I answered, slumping back into my seat.

"Why did you leave?" She asked. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable. This time it was my turn to look away. "I'm sorry if I offended you."

"That's okay. But my past is not something I feel like talking about. Not now, anyway."

"That's fair." The captain said. She seemed satisfied for the moment at least. We continued on our travels for another half an hour or so before we got word from the pilots that we would be arriving soon. I was suddenly aware that we were no longer moving forward, but vertically downwards. It was a strange sensation being in a plane that did this.

I watched out of the window at our decent. We were landing in the middle of, what looked like, the arctic. No buildings. No compounds. No… anything. I turned to Durand about to question what was happening and I was met by that same smile of hers. I turned back to the window. We were 20 metres off the ground. 10 metres. Five, four, three, two, one… and we kept going. We had descended into an artificial hole in the middle of a desert. We dropped into a rocky cave which expanded outwards from the hole above us. About 50 metres down were hangers lining the walls. Each had a futuristic fighter plane in, all of which were being prepped or having maintenance work being done on them. We must have descended about 100 metres into the complex before the Sky Ranger came to a halt.

"Time to meet the family." The sergeant said to me. He pressed a button on the wall. The rear hatch of the plane opened and I was greeted with a familiar sight. There were eight guns pointed at me. Well fuck, I thought to myself. I raised my hands slowly. This wasn't what I had expected, but seeing as how my day had been going, I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised really. It wasn't until my hands were raised that I noticed something. The men with the guns weren't pointing them at me. They were pointing them at the box to my left. I looked at it. It wasn't doing anything… was it? Behind the gunmen, a pair of blast doors opened and a duo of men in bright yellow chemical suits came out. They came through the men and took hold of the cargo. They pulled it out of the back of the Sky Ranger. The gunmen followed the path of box and escorted it back through the blast doors with the men in chemical suits carrying it.

"What was that all about?" I asked Durand.

"Don't worry about that. Follow me." She stepped off the aircraft and I fell in step behind her. She signalled two guards who were waiting nearby and they came over. "Take Mr. Cain to the waiting room. If he tries anything, shoot him." Charming. She certainly knew how to treat guests.

"Yes, captain." One of the guards said. They weren't wearing as heavy armour as Durand and her team, but it still looked very impressive. "Sir, I'm going to have to take your sword." He held out his hand expectantly.

"I'd like to see you try." I warned. The guard paused, unsure. He looked for confirmation from Durand. She nodded.

"Very well, sir. Follow me." He led me through a different set of blast doors on the other side of the hanger bay. I was taken down a long corridor. It was a semi-circular with the walls meeting at the top. At each end of the corridor was a security camera that tracked our movement. We got to the end of the corridor and went through another set of blast doors. We must have been walking for a good 10 minutes. I was beginning to wonder exactly how big this place was.

We eventually came to a door where the two men escorting me gestured that I should wait inside. I opened the door and went through. The room was fairly small. It had three chairs all around a coffee table where a few old magazines lay. There was a painting on a wall of a group of Allied soldiers from the Second World War fighting over the beaches at Normandy. At the bottom of the painting was a quote on a bronze plate saying 'Heaven lies on the far side of Hell.' I stared at the painting for a minute or two trying to work out what it must have been like to be sent into almost certain death and come out the other side victorious and alive.

I sat down on one of the chairs and looked through one of the magazines. They both were fairly boring so I gave up almost immediately and instead began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. Somehow I had managed to go from being in a simple mercenary for hire to getting a job interview at some sort of secret underground organisation. I'd like to say I was moving up in the world, but my current location was literally the opposite of that thought. Fortunately I didn't have to wait too long on these thoughts because only thirty minutes after I had arrived the guards were back. They took me out the room and walked me down the corridor to another door. I was about to walk in when the guard held up a hand and stopped me.

"What?" I asked, puzzled.

"Before you go in, I should warn you; don't lie." Before I had chance to reply he opened the door and pushed me inside. Inside was a small room, not dissimilar in size to the one where I was waiting, however this room clearly designed for an interview process. Inside there was a wooden desk with a computer screen facing away from the door.

A man sat behind the desk going through some documents. He was an old man. Easily over 70. He was bald and cleanly shaven. He wore a suit and a pair of rimless glasses. He glanced up at me for a moment. The guards behind me followed me in and stood either side of the doorway. The old man put down his papers and gestured to the seat in front of the desk. It was an old wooden seat that I thought would barely be able to keep my weight. Nevertheless I sat down and the chair groaned under me. I looked at the old man, unsure of what I should say. Fortunately he broke the silence for me.

"Well Mr. Cain, you seemed to have impressed captain Durand today. So much so, that she seems to have offered you a job. As much as she finds you capable of being part of this organisation, it's not her decision to make. It's mine." He looked at me, waiting for a response. I said nothing. "You have to understand, we are very selective with our choice of employees. Not just anyone can join. What makes you think you have what it takes?"

"I still don't actually know _what_ I'm signing up for." I said, looking around the room. The walls were bare, with the exception of a small picture of the U.S. president, J.F. Kennedy.

"And you won't. Not fully anyway. Not until it I decide that you're the right sort of person."

"Very well. What do you want to know about me?"

The old man eyed me up. He put his elbows on his desk and rested his chin on his hands. "Who are you?"

"I'm Andreos Cain." I replied curtly.

"What were you doing in the French Alps?" He asked, not taking his eyes off of me for a moment.

"I was sent on a mission to ambush a convoy carrying a piece of cargo that was deemed important by the person who gave us the job. We were to secure the cargo and drop it off at a farm to the South East of the ambush site." He took off his glasses and paused for a second to clean them.

"Do you know what the cargo was?" The old man finally asked.

"No. All we do is what we're told. We don't ask any questions other than what may help us complete the mission." He wrote something down on the piece of paper he had in front of him.

"What was your part in the attack on the convoy?"

I sat up in the chair. "I was the one who led it. I was in command of that particular job."

"So how does it make you feel that you failed so miserably?" He asked. That was a curve ball. "I mean it must have made you angry to know that not only did you fail your job, but all of your team were killed." He was trying to bring a reaction out of me. That much was obvious. But I kept my calm.

"We were out gunned and outnumbered." I replied in the most diplomatic way that I could.

"So you admit it was your fault then?" He probed.

"I'm not saying that at all. I set up the ambush the best anyone could do and executed it. We simply didn't have the means to take on the convoy." He said nothing. The old man wrote on his sheet of paper before neatly setting his pen down on the desk.

"What was your role in the attack? Surely you wouldn't have just stood there whilst your team was slaughtered around you?" This was beginning to feel less like an interview and more like an interrogation.

"I was one of the heavies. I laid down suppressing fire with my LGM's and took out the armour with rockets."

"I see." He looked through the dossier to his left and went through it. Eventually he got to a piece of paper and withdrew it. "I have here the information of your court martial, Cain. Quite the read, I can tell you." He didn't look up as he sifted through the information in front of him I stared at him. "You certainly know how to end up in bad situations."

"Some would call it luck." I answered a little too sarcastically.

The old man looked up at me from my personal file. " _I_ am not one of them."

"I didn't think you would be." He paused and looked at me. A bead of sweat ran down the back of my neck.

"Tell me, Cain, how did it feel to be betrayed by your friends, your family and your country?" He asked. A slight grin appeared on the corner of his mouth.

I shifted a little in my seat. The wooden chair groaned with annoyance at the sudden disturbance. "What would you think? I was _wrongfully_ accused of a crime I didn't commit. Trailed and exiled. I was more than a little upset, believe you me."

"And so you became a mercenary. A hired thug. Someone who is paid to shoot and kill. No questions asked, no loyalties to worry about, only who is the highest bidder. Tell me, Cain, why should we employ someone like you?" He asked.

"If I didn't even have a chance of succeeding, then why am I here?" I asked. My intension was to catch him off guard. It was a long shot. This type of guy has clearly done more interviews than I have jobs. Still, I was willing to try anything. He sat up in his chair. The small grin on the corner of his mouth vanished. He paused for a moment before answering me.

"My superiors seem to believe your usefulness appears to out weight your recklessness." He said with some distaste, as though the very thought seemed to offend him personally.

"I'm not reckless." I responded defensively.

"This folder says otherwise." He said holding up the file. "I have hear your personal file from the RAF. Phrases such as 'hot head' and 'doesn't respond well to leadership' are repeated quite a lot."

"That was before I was shunned. I realised that being that sort of person was getting me into more trouble than it was worth."

The old man looked me up and down. "So you'd say your calmer now? More relaxed?"

I nodded. "Yes, I would."

"Then why did you stab Cornel Harthen on the road?" I paused. I was immediately back on the road, standing over the cornel with his bloody stump. My sword in my hand. This, I felt, was a make or break question.

"He killed my friend in cold blood when we were on our knees." I said with as little emotion as I could. I needed to remain calm. I couldn't let my emotions get the better of me here.

The old man cocked his head to the side. "Would you not say that was a 'hot headed' reaction?"

"If I had to make that choice again, believe me when I say I'd stab that bastard _every_ time." The old man looked at me.

"Why?" He asked. I held his stare.

"I had no friends. Because of that man, I _have_ no friends. Viktor and I were loyal to each other. He watched my back. I watched his. We had saved each other more times that I can remember. There was a brotherly bond between us. And to see him lying dead before me, with his killer standing in front of me, filled me with more hatred than I have ever felt before." The old man looked me square in the eyes. He seemed to be concentrating. On what, I didn't know. I was beginning to feel the same uneasiness that I found around Captain Durand.

"Loyalty is important to you, isn't it?" He asked.

"I'm loyal to those who're loyal to me." I answered. The old man raised an eyebrow. That wasn't exactly true. I was loyal to the highest bidder, being a mercenary and all, it came with the job. That said, if I was paid, I was loyal till the money ran out. After that, if a competitor hired me, well, they would be fair game.

"I see." He said unconvinced. There was a pause as he gathered his thoughts. "What do you know of EXALT?" Bloody EXALT. This group of people managed to turn my life around in a matter of seconds. If they were an average group of people, they would be dead, and I'd be back at the compound with a nice stiff drink, marvelling in my retirement fund.

"They were the ones who were guarding the HGV." I answered.

"Anything else?" He asked, trying to gauge a reaction, no doubt.

I shook my head. "No. They're a group my team and I have never come across."

"They're an organisation whose objective is to acquiring certain items." The old man informed me. He sat back in his chair for a moment.

"What items?" I inquired. There were a number of idea that were going through my head as to what was in the container. A valuable mineral to be sold off? A suitcase nuke? The lasted issue of Heat magazine... the possibilities were endless.

"That's classified." He said in a rehearsed manner.

I rolled my eyes. "There's a shock." I said with an exasperated tone.

The old man looked at me and locked eyes. "Mr. Cain, our organisation is very much a military and research operation. Given your background and your specific skill set, you would be placed into the military side. I warn you now, you would be placed in harm's way more often than not."

"Well, I hate to surprise you, but I've been in harm's way for a majority of my adult life." I said.

"That is true. It's another reason why we're considering your application." He said looking back down at the documents in front of him.

"There's more than one reason?" I asked with a dry sense of humour.

"Yes. Your combat abilities are clearly your strong point, but we also see your potential to increase your rank and take on leadership roles. You've shown you can lead soldiers into battle." He said with a matter-of-fact tonality in his voice.

"You flatter me." I responded with just a small hint of sarcasm. For a second I recalled all of the people who had been under my command and now lay dead. Viktor, Hicks, Biggs and all the others. Death was always at the heart of our work. You could never escape it, only extend the distance.

"I don't. Nor will I. I'm looking at you purely objectively. We can use a man like you Cain."

"So what happens if I accept your offer?" I asked, sitting back, the chair creaking as I adjusted my position.

"You'll be taken from here to formerly sign up. You'll be assigned billets immediately and combat gear when you are deployed on missions."

"And if I refuse…?" I trailed off. Knew what he was going to say, but I had to ask, regardless.

The grin on the old man returned for just a second. "You'll be charged for crimes of murder, assault and theft, be found guilty and thrown into a jail to live out the rest of your life."

"You certainly know how to persuade a man, I'll give you that much." I looked at him, square in the face. "Very well. I accept."

"I knew you would." He stood up and offered me his hand. I rose and shook it.

"Thank you, sir, for the opportunity." I said, with as much sincerity as I could muster for the man who had just grilled me with questioning for the last 15 minutes. "What is your name by the way?"

"That's classified." He responded. I swear if he hadn't just offered me a job I would have punched him there and then. I exited the room with the two guards who now seemed a little less tense than before. They took me through a maze of corridors and down several levels to find an administration person who got me to sign about 50 odd documents all swearing to secrecy of some kind or another and saying that there was a high probability of dying in my line of work and that I was aware of this. Once I'd signed all the sheets I was taken to my billets. Once again I was led down a series of interlocking corridors till we ended up at a door way. The guards opened the doors and I saw, for the first time, the room to which I'd be spending the rest of my expected life.

The doorway led onto another corridor, but entering at one end, I seemed to have entered in the middle on one of the sides. In both directions down the corridor on either side were bunk beds embedded into the walls. Under each bunk was a drawer for people to put their effects and personal items into. There must have been about 18 bunks all told. They weren't empty either. There were men and women resting in stripped down combat gear, joking and laughing, some were playing cards on the floor by their bunks, others were trying to catch sleep in their bunks. One of the men looked up from his cards and glanced at me. He turned to his friend and muttered something. His friend then turned around and looked at me before returning to the first man. They both shook their heads and continued with their game. Well that just _filled_ me with confidence. The guards took me to a bunk, which looked like all the others.

"If there's any problems, let someone know." The guard said. I got the impression he didn't want to be that person and I don't blame him, in all honesty.

"Thanks." I said and with that, the two guards left. I sat down on my bunk ad thought 'what on earth have I gotten myself into?' Since I didn't have anything else to do, I opened the drawer to put away my combat gear. Inside was a set of combat fatigues, much like the ones the other soldiers seemed to be wearing. I looked at them puzzled. How did they get my measurements? It wasn't until I tried to put them on that I realised that they hadn't. There's one thing that you have to note when you go into any sort of military outfit and it's that there is never any clothing that fits perfectly. It's either too big or two small. This place, it appeared, was no different. It was funny, I was actually quite relieved. It gave me a sense of reality for the first time since arriving at the base. I was just finishing putting on my new clothes when I got a tap on the shoulder.

"Are you Cain?" A man with a thick Yorkshire accent behind me asked. I turned around to face him.

"I am. And you are?" I looked at the man before me. He was taller than me, but not by much. He, like everyone else it appeared, was wearing the same type of fatigues as I was. He had short, brown hair. He didn't seem to be hugely built, but he emitted a sense of power from his attitude and his manner.

"Lieutenant Thomas Williams." He said. "I'm your new commanding officer." He held out his hand in greeting. I took it.

"Nice to meet you, sir." Looked down at the floor for a moment before looking at my new boss. "I'm curious, though. What rank am I to be in this…place?" I asked, genuinely unsure what his response would be.

"Well you are fairly new to us, however you have shown that you are capable in the field and in command, you'll be granted the rank of sergeant. It's not much, but at least you won't be cannon fodder like the squaddies." He joked. I wasn't sure what to make of him. To trust any of these people so soon would be stupid. No, I didn't trust this Lieutenant Williams. Not yet, anyway. That said, he was of a higher rank, so I at least respected his seniority. "How are you finding the place?"

"Honestly? A little overwhelming. It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be." I said gesturing to the base.

He grinned at me. "That's what they all say." He replied.

"I can imagine." I said looking blankly down one of the corridors.

"Seeing as you're under my command now, we should probably get to know each other. Come with me. I'll give you the tour." I got the feeling this wasn't a request, but I was intrigued so I went with him.

"You can leave that behind you know." He said, indicating my rapier. "No one's going to attack us here." He said with certainty.

"I'll be fine, if that's alright, sir." I said, placing a hand onto my sword hilt.

"Suit yourself." He turned around and began walking. I fell in step next to him once we were out of the billets and walking down the corridor. He led me down the corridor. "So I've been told by the higher ups that you're a heavy trooper. That right?"

"Yup. Always been a fan of a big gun." I said proudly.

"I can imagine. What are you more suited towards? Bullets or rockets?" He asked.

I shrugged. "I'm good with either. If I had to pick between the two though, it'd be bullets."

"That's good. The other heavy in our strike team prefers rockets. You two will balance out quite nicely I reckon." He said as we turned a corner in the never ending maze of corridors.

"That's good, I guess." I said following behind, trying to recall how I was to get back if necessary.

"Oh it is." He said. Then he asked me something I wasn't quite expecting. "Tell me, Cain, what do you know of aliens?"

I paused for a moment unsure if I had heard him correctly. "What?" I asked confused.

"Aliens." He repeated. I thought he was having a laugh, to break the ice and all that.

"Not much." I answered. "They fly in space ships and try to steal our cattle, right?"

"Close. They do less cattle thieving than most people think." We stopped outside of a blast door. I don't think I had come past this one before. That said, there are so many that I may well have done in this place.

"Wait a sec. You're not trying to tell me aliens actually exist." I smiled in jest.

"I don't need to tell you." He smiled at my confused face and punched in a code on a panel to the side of the door. They blast doors rolled aside and what I saw will never leave my memory. Inside were a group of scientists all in white lab coats. The room was quite large. There were work stations and computer monitors coming out of the wall, but they were insignificant compared to the centre piece of the room. In the middle was a Perspex chamber about 5 metres in diameter. Inside of the chamber though was a creature that captured my full attention. There, inside, was a small greyish animal. It looked humanoid but its head was hugely disproportionate to its body. It had two arms and two legs that were very thin, almost insect like. The creature's two massive black eyes stared out of the chamber at me. Damn, this thing was ugly. I was transfixed on it, and would have continued to be if the chamber's blast shields hadn't closed around it, sealing off any view of the specimen, trapped in the cylindrical prison. I turned to Lieutenant Williams.

"The _fuck_ was that?" I asked in a rather high pitched tone.

" _That_ my dear boy… was an alien." He said in a way that made me feel rather stupid.

"W-wha-… whe-… h-how the-…"

"Yeah. Everyone says that." He said with a warm smile.

"That's a-…" I pointed at the sealed chamber.

"Yup."

"You've got a-.."

"Yuuuup."

"So there are-…"

"Oh yeah." He said. I looked at him, mouth agape, squinting my eyes, trying to fathom what I had just seen. "Cain? Are you okay? Hello?" I just stared at him. "Okay I'll give you a minute." My head was swimming.

"What kind of place is this?" I finally asked him.

"This, Sergeant Cain, is XCOM. We are humanities last line of defence against the aliens." He words dripping with pride.

"And _I_ just signed up for it, didn't I?"

"Oh yes. You're one of us now." He said with a welcoming smile.

"What was that thing?" I asked, pointing my thumb.

"That was an alien, Cain. We've decided to call them sectoids, due to their body structure." He said.

"Where the Hell did you get that?" I asked.

He chuckled to himself. "You brought it, of course."

"Like Hell I did." I replied. "I think I'd know if I had an alien I was travelling with."

"That piece of cargo that you arrived here with…" he said. Well that certainly made sense why there were so many guns pointed at that box. And why everyone was so transfixed by it when we were on the Sky Ranger.

I nodded slowly. "Well now I know why it was so important." Said looking off, trying to recall the events.

"Aye, that you do. Come on. I'll give you the rest of the tour in a while. Right now, I'll take you back to your bed. You look like you could use some sleep."

"Lord knows how I'll sleep now, knowing that thing is around."

"You'll find a way. Don't worry about it." He said reassuringly. We walked back to the billets and Williams left me to my own devices once we got to my bunk. I stripped down to the bare minimum and slipped into bed. Sleep didn't come easily, but it did come in the end. All I could think about though were those huge black eyes staring at me. Little did I know that that was just the first drop of the nightmare fuel I would be receiving in my time at XCOM. If I had known what was just around the corner I would have got as far away from there as I possibly could.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"I'm not so sure I want to be a part of a team that I have to rescue every week"

\- Brigadier General James Macabe's personal thoughts on strike 2

It won't surprise you at all to learn that I had a really shitty night's sleep. Not because of thoughts of the alien (I managed to supress them) but because my bed was so bloody hard. I mean _really_? This place must have been receiving a monumental amount of funding from somewhere and they can't afford to buy nice bunks? Bloody typical. I looked at my watch and saw it was 6:30am. I didn't have anything else to do, so I decided to get ready. Others in the billets seemed to be having a similar idea to me. I put a towel round me, which I found in the drawer under my bunk and went to get showered. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was hot water. I was half expecting it not to work at all, the way my luck's been going recently. I finished the shower fairly quickly and went back to my bunk to find someone there waiting for me. Standing next to my bunk was a young woman, slightly shorter than me. She had long blonde hair and was dressed in the standard fatigues that I was beginning to get accustomed to everyone wearing.

"Ah, you must be Sergeant Cain." She said with a rather high pitched tone that was a little too early for this time in the morning.

"I am. And you are…?" I asked drying my hair on a spare towel.

"Corporal Ethyl Johnson" She smiled as she saluted me. "I'm the assault in our strike team."

I returned the salute half-heartedly. "Ah, I see. Apparently I'm the second heavy in the team."

"I know." She said with a smile. There was something a little off about her. I was beginning to get the same uneasiness that I had when I was with Durand and the old man.

"So what happens now?" I asked her.

"Well, you're going to get ready, then we're going to breakfast to meet up with the others." She said with a grin.

I frowned for a second "Others?" I asked.

"The rest of strike 2. Surely you're eager to meet the rest of the team?" Ethyl said with a little too much enthusiasm. She seemed like the kind of girl that would skip everywhere if given the opportunity.

"I can't think of a reason why I wouldn't be." I agreed.

"Great. I'll come back in five minutes once you're ready and I'll take you to the mess hall." She said.

"Can't wait. I could do with some food." I didn't actually realise how true that was until I had spoken the words. She smiled again and left me to get dressed. I put on my clothes and attached my sword to my belt. As she said she would, Ethyl returned in five minutes.

"Ready?" She asked, taking a good look at me.

"I think so." I said, taking one last look at my bunk and gear.

"Good." She turned around and led me down the corridors. We didn't go as far as Williams had taken me the previous night. Barely even a third of that actually. We turned to go in through some doors on the side of the corridor. Inside was a wide, long room filled with four long benched that could seat about thirty people on either side. There were quite a few people already tucking into their breakfast, chatting away to other about something or other. Ethyl ushered me towards a stack of trays where I picked one up and began queuing to receive me food. The queue wasn't very long, maybe four people, so it wasn't long before I was at the head of the queue. I put my tray on the railings. The cook behind the stand looked at me.

"Vegetarian?" He asked with little enthusiasm.

"No." I answered. He handed me a plate with what can only be described as some sort of meaty paste. I looked down at it, hoping it was some sort of joke on the new guy. It wasn't. I moved my tray along. There was a bowl of fruit. I picked up an apple and waited for Ethyl to get her food.

"Okay, let's go find the others." She said in a cheery voice. She led the way while I followed, all the while inspecting the _food_ I had been given.

"Does the food always look this… grey?" I asked, concerned.

"Only on Thursdays."

"But today's Monday." I pointed out.

"Oh yeah." She realised. "Oh well." Ethyl chimed and wondered off in the directions of some people sitting on the benches. After a moment I followed. We walked down the aisle, between two benches, towards three people who were sitting down already tucking into their breakfast.

"… So I said 'that's no hermaphrodite, that's my sister'." The trio erupted into laughter.

"Morning all." Ethyl cut in. The others turned round to look at us. "This here's Andreos Cain. He's our new strike member."

"Hello." I said, a little apprehensive. Of the three that were sitting down, I only recognised one of them. Lieutenant Williams was sitting opposite me. He nodded an acknowledgement at me. Next to him was a man in his late twenties, early thirties. He had short blonde hair and a rather rugged looking beard. There was a look in his eye that unsettled me a little. Not like Durand or the old man who had made me feel uneasy due to their presence. No. This one seemed a little… crazy, for want of a better word. I looked at his shoulders and saw he was a sergeant, similar to me.

"Pleasure to meet you." He said. "I'm Ben Wesson." Opposite him was a man, who looked as if he'd only just left college. He was small but was very well built. He gave off a sense of underlying power. Like almost every man here, he had short, brown hair. I looked at his shoulders to try and spy a rank of some kind. From what Williams had told me about the rank structure, this guy was a squaddie. The rank only just above a new recruit which meant one thing. He was our designated tea boy.

"Hi. Jeremy Smart. Come, join us." He offered the seats next to him. Ethyl and I sat down. "So I hear you're another heavy then?"

"Yeah. Are you the other one?" I asked as I prodded the meal in front of me.

"No, that would be me." Wesson cut in. "Seventy two's an assault."

"I told you not to call me that." Smart growled. Wesson ignored him.

All these people were part of my team now. Seeing as I was the newest person to this motley crew, I thought it would be best to try and learn their roles. If nothing else, I'll need to know who's going to be covering my back, and vice versa. "So what _is_ everyone then?" I asked, looking around the table.

"Well Wesson and Smart you know." Answered Williams. "Ethyl, here, is also an assault and I'm the support in the team."

"No snipers?" I queried.

Smart shook his head. "Nope. Never needed them." He said.

"That's what you think seventy two. What about in Peru?" Wesson responded.

"I said stop calling me that." Smart said. His voice sounded more dangerous than he looked. That said, I wouldn't have wanted to find out. Not unless I had a significant advantage anyway.

"Wesson. Stop it. Now." Williams interjected. He turned to me. "He's right though, we've never needed them on previous missions. Where we've been sent it's always been up close work."

"In my experience snipers are always needed though." I replied.

"Where did you work before here?" Ethyl asked as she began eating her breakfast. He face twisted as she registered the taste of the grey-looking paste. She persevered however and continued to eat it.

"I was a mercenary for a number of years. Before that, in the RAF regiment." I answered.

Williams cocked an eyebrow. "You were in The Queen's forces? Why did you leave?" He asked.

"Differences of opinion." I responded. I didn't want to talk about what those difference were so I changed the subject. "So how often do we go on missions?" I asked, hoping someone would bite.

"Not very." Replied Wesson. "Strike one do most of the missions. We occasionally go out. To be honest, unless the aliens commit to a full scale invasion I don't think we'll be going on that many missions really." Well that suited me just fine. I'd rather not get shot at if I could avoid,

"Damn." I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, so early in the morning. "Do you know if we'll be going on any missions any time soon?"

"It's funny you mention that, Cain." Williams began. I already didn't like where this was going. "Central wants to talk to me. He only ever does that if we've got a mission. He's a busy man."

"Sorry, _Central_?" I asked.

"He's the secretary." Replied Wesson.

"He's also the one who signs your pay check." Ethyl jumped in. "So don't annoy him."

"Noted." I said thoughtfully.

"Are you going to eat that?" Asked Smart, pointing at the paste on my tray.

"Er, yeah. I guess." I said looking down at the sludge before me.

"The trick's not to look at it while you eat it, Cain." Williams said with a joking smile.

"Wonderful." I said. I picked up a fork and began eating. My GOD was it bad. It tasted like foot. I swear if it wasn't the only food around I would have thrown it away in a heartbeat. Unfortunately I wasn't, so I continued to eat it.

"Right team, I'm off to go see Central." Williams began saying as he stood up. "Chances are we're getting a mission, so if we are, I want you prepped and ready to go. Understood?" There was a collection of responses all along the lines of 'will do' or 'aye, sir'.

"Can't wait." I said with some enthusiasm.

"Good." With that, Williams left us.

Wesson turned to me with a sly grin on his face. "So the lieutenant was telling us you got to see our little guest yesterday. Bet that was a wakeup call." He said turning back to his meal.

"You could say that." I replied, thinking back to the sight of the creature. I shuddered a little, but I don't think anyone really noticed.

"Yeah, you never forget the first time you see one of the ugly little buggers." Wesson said with a mouthful of food.

"I can imagine…" I trailed off. Ethyl was listening to the two of us but Smart seemed to be more interested in his food.

"Yeah, the lieutenant said you were a little awestruck, so he ended the tour a little early. How'd you like me to take you round? Show you the ins and outs of this place."

"Can I have a map?" I jokingly asked.

Wesson chuckled. "Ah maps. They're over-rated." He smiled. "Come on. As soon as you've finished your slop I'll show you around."

"Sounds like a plan." I said. I looked at the meal in front of me. I honestly wasn't sure if I'd be able to finish it all without throwing up, but I was certainly going to try.

"Can I come too?" Smart asked.

"No, seventy two. You stay here with Ethyl. Try not to bore her to death." Smart glared at him, but Wesson ignored it. "You ready?" He asked as I stared down at the remaining food.

"Yeah. Not really into this food to be honest." I confessed.

"I know what you mean. Come on, let's go." Wesson and I got up. I said farewell to the others and we went back through the blast doors that Ethyl had brought me in earlier. We turned to the right and Wesson led me through a maze.

"We'll start at the top and work our way down." He said.

"Sounds good to me." I said. "Wesson, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what is it?" He turned to me as we walked.

"Why do you call Smart seventy two?" I asked.

"When he first arrived here, I snuck into the admin office and took a look at his file." I looked at him puzzled. "It's his IQ." He chuckled. I smiled too.

"Bless him." I said with a bit of a patronising tone. Wesson chuckled again.

"Don't get me wrong, he _does_ try. It's just the end result isn't always what he expected." We both smiled. "Right here we are, first stop on the tour." Wesson and I turned the corner and entered what can only be described as a production line for a factory. "This, here, is the workshop." There were men in yellow hard hats all working on some sort of project. The room was full of work stations where blue prints and designs were pinned to walls. Men pointed at the different parts of the designs, seemingly arguing of what could be improved. There was a shriek of metal as a buzz saw was activated and sparks flew as a piece of metal was pushed through. Running from one end of the room to the other was a production line where objects big and small were coming out. There were weapon types and armour that I had never even seen before. As we watched a man came over to us.

"Sergeant Wesson, great to see you again. Who's your friend that you've brought along?" The man asked. He was quite an old man who was balding on the top of his head. The hair that he did have left around the sides had turned white years ago. He has a stern face, but his smile was welcoming.

"Hello Shen." Wesson said, shaking the man's hand. "This is Sergeant Andreos Cain."

"Nice to meet you, sir." I greeted.

"Oh there's no need to be formal with me." He said reassuringly. "Call me Shen. I'm the chief engineer here at XCOM. If you have any issues with equipment, come to me or one of my staff."

"I will." I said with a smile.

"Have you got any new toys for me Shen?" Wesson asked quite eagerly.

"As a matter of fact I do." Shen walked us over to a work bench where a small hand held device lay. It looked like a large mobile phone with a very large screen. "This is our latest device. It's a short range tracking device. It's able to detect movement up to forty metres." Shen turned the device on and pointed it towards the door way which we had come in. There was a small blip on the scanner moving from left to right. It didn't have any map schematics on, just a grid reference, but we watched as the blip moved along until finally it got to where there door was and sure enough someone came round the corner.

"Very impressive." I said without a hint of sarcasm.

"Thank you. We've only got a few prototypes working at the moment, but they'll hopefully get a field test soon."

"Thanks Shen." Said Wesson. "We'll leave you to your work."

"You're very welcome." Shen said and turned to go back to the work he was previously doing. Wesson and I went back out into the corridor.

"Right. Lab time." He said. We walked down the corridor and got to the lift. Inside there was a security panel next to the floor numbers. "I've only got access to certain floors." Wesson began. "But I'll show you the Labs then the Satellite rooms."

"Lead the way." I said. I was beginning to like Wesson. For all his demeanour, he seemed like an honest guy. He punched in a code and the lights for sub levels one and two lit up. He pressed the button marked two and the doors closed. I felt the lift descend. I've never had a problem with confined space, but I could hear the echo of the gear in the lift shaft and was suddenly, painfully aware of how high I was. The doors opened to an identical corridor to the one we had just left. I stepped out, as did Wesson. He took the lead almost immediately and we walked for a bit. He was telling me how he once had to wrestle a sectoid which fell onto him after it fell from a roof top in Omaha when we reached the laboratory.

The laboratory was a similar size to the workshop. It had multiple workstations with men and women in white coats working, the main difference being that instead of power tools and blue prints, there were chemicals and Bunsen burners. I felt like I was back in chemistry class. I remember having the sudden urge to procrastinate for some reason. On the far right hand side of the room was an observation room with a metal bed. It looked as though operations of some sort were performed in there, but I couldn't have been sure.

"Welcome to the lab." I heard a female voice, with a strong German accent, behind me say. I turned around to see a woman in her early thirties dressed in a lab coat, like all the others in the room. She had brown hair hat was put up into a bun. "I am Dr Mitz. I'm head of research here at XCOM."

"Sergeant Ben Wesson." Wesson said. "This is Sergeant Andreos Cain."

"Greeting." The doctor said. "Can I help either of you two?"

"No, that's alright. I'm just giving Cain the tour."

"Very well. I shall get back to my work then." Mitz said. Wesson and I turned to go.

"Right. Just the satellite room to go then." Wesson said cheerfully. "It's just around the corner." We left the labs and continued down the corridor till we reached the next set of blast doors. I pressed the button on the wall and the doors opened. Inside was a massive antenna dish, about twenty metres in diameter. It slowly rotated. The roar of the gears was almost unbearable. I was surprised I didn't hear it from outside in the corridor. "This antenna sends and receives date to the satellites in orbit above us. It's how we track the alien ships."

"Nice." I said, impressed.

"It's alright." Wesson said with a grin. It was at that point when we got a call over the radio.

" _Wesson, Cain, report to the hanger bay at once. We've got a mission."_ It was Williams.

"Best not to keep the man waiting." Wesson said. We went back down the corridor and into the lift. Wesson punched in his code and the lights for the floors lit up. He pressed the ground floor button and the lift rose. About thirty seconds later the lift doors opened and we were on the hanger level. We departed the lift and walked down yet another corridor. We got to a doorway, midway down the corridor and went inside. The room that we had gone into was a briefing room of some kind. It was fairly large, as could quite comfortably fit twenty people in without much issue. There was a projector and a screen. There were no chairs in the room, which gave me the impression we'd only be in there for a short time. In the room already were the rest of Strike Two and the familiar sight of Strike Three with Captain Durand standing by the screen.

"Good. Everyone's here." She said. "I'm sorry to do this on short notice, so I'll be brief. We've lost contact with a small town in Texas. Our mission is to go in and find out what's happened to them."

Ethyl raised a hand. "How do we know it's anything to do with aliens?" Ethyl asked.

"Shortly before we lost contact, there were a few messages sent, talking about strange creatures taking people in the night." Durand answered.

"How do we know it's not some big wild predator of some sort?" One of the men from Strike Three asked.

"We don't know for sure. But in the messages, _insect-like_ was a phrase that was used to describe the creatures" Durand answered. I looked around at the others in the room. There seemed to be some sort of acceptance at that bit of information.

I raised a hand. "How big was the town?" I asked.

"About two hundred, all told." Durand recalled.

"That's a lot of missing people." I said, sitting back into my seat.

"I know. Which is why both Strikes Two and Three are going on this mission. Shen has asked if we can try out the new motion detector he's been working on. Each team will be given one. Any other questions." Wesson raised his hand. "What is it sergeant?" Durand asked.

"How do I get out of this chicken-shit outfit?" He asked.

"You secure that shit Wesson." Williams growled.

"Right." Durand continued. "I want this to go smooth, and by the numbers. We leave in ten minutes." The room moaned at the short notice of it all. Williams cut through the back chat with a menacing tone.

"You heard the captain, we leave in ten. Asses and elbows people. Wesson come here, _come here_!" He growled in a thick Yorkshire accent. The teams left the room and turned down the corridor towards the armoury.

The armoury itself was a large room filled with lockers where each person had their own set of combat armour. There were weapon racks with all sorts of weapons; assault rifles, shotguns and LMG's hung from them, to name but a few. I donned my armour. It was lightweight and fit snugly. The torso plates covered my front and back, while leg and knee guards covered my lower body. I attached arm and wrist bracers that restricted some movement, but not enough that it was going to be an issue. Once I had geared up I moved over to the weapon racks. I was pleasantly surprised to see a section with my name stencilled on it. In the area was a brand new LMG and rocket launcher. I lifted the LMG. Despite its size, it was lighter than I thought it would be, as was the rocket launcher. I picked up the ammunition and loaded my LMG. I looked around to see others were also picking up their weapons, inspecting them to make sure everything was in order. We loaded up and headed out into the hanger bay where two Sky Rangers were being prepped for take-off. I looked around and saw Ethyl and Smart were waiting by one of the Sky Rangers.

"You ready to kick ass?" Smart asked me as I came over.

"We'll see." I replied.

"Come on, let's go." Ethyl said. We walked up the ramp the nearest Sky Ranger, stowed our weapons and sat down in the seats. A few moments later, Wesson and Williams came on. Wesson was dressed in a similar type of armour to myself, but Williams' looked different. It was slimmer and more neatly trimmed.

"Nice armour." I said, hiding the bit of envy I felt.

"Perks of seniority. Right, we're all here. Take us away, pilot." Williams said.

"Aye, Sir." I heard him say. There was a whining hum as the engines were turned on. Williams pressed a button on the inside wall of the Sky Ranger and the ramp closed behind him. He stowed his weapon and sat down. The Sky Ranger lurched a little as the turbines worked to overcome the forces of gravity. Eventually I felt the air craft lift off the ground. We rose up through the cavern and went through the hole that separated the base from the outside world. The sun almost blinded me as it beamed through the small window straight on my face. Trust me to pick the only seat where the Sun constantly blinds whoever was sitting there. I shuffled trying to avoid the light in my face and ended up slouched in my seat, legs outstretched which, needless to say, got some strange looks from the rest of the team. Wesson just chuckled to himself after seeing the position I was in. It was going to be a long flight. I decided to get some sleep, while I could. Who knew how much time I'd get for rest once we had landed? As it turned out, not nearly enough.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"We're surrounded? Good! Now I can shoot the enemy no matter what direction I'm facing. Those bastards won't get away this time."

Colonel David Kessell

I didn't really get much sleep, for one simple reason; The Sky Ranger moves bloody quick. We were only in the air for a few hours before we got the message that we'd be arriving soon. I was now beginning to realise that this organisation, I was now part of, really did have _all_ the fun stuff. I looked out of the window to see the arid deserts of Texas roll on by. Unfortunately the Sun hadn't really changed place much so I was still being partially blinded. Lucky me, eh.

"Five minutes till we get to the village, Sir." The pilot said.

"Good to hear. I've got orders from the Captain that we're to circle the village before deciding where to put down." Williams replied.

"Yes Sir." The pilot acknowledged. I watched out the small viewing hole as a small spec on the horizon began to increase in size. As I watched the spec get larger, individual buildings were able to be seen. This wasn't a very large town, but still, two hundred people don't tend to go missing just like that. We got closer to the mystery town and the pilot put us into a holding pattern that circled the area. I couldn't see the other Sky Ranger, but I assumed they were doing the same as us. The town was made up of around two hundred and fifty stone and concrete buildings. Roads crisscrossed to form a grid like pattern when viewed from above. And it was deserted. There were no pedestrians, no cars driving, nothing. It was just empty.

"We're to put down on the southern outskirts of the town, pilot." Williams ordered.

"Yes Sir." The pilot replied. I felt the aircraft descend as the pilot took us in. Within two minutes we were on the ground. The rear hatch opened and we stepped outside. It was about midday and there was barely a cloud in the sky.

"Oh shit." I said. The others looked around concerned.

"What?" Williams asked.

"Forgot my sun cream." I answered. Williams cocked his head and gave me an irritated look. Wesson just smiled to himself and shook his head. We had landed about 50 metres south of the town. The other Sky Ranger was about 10 metres to our left. Strike three were all out already scanning the town with their weapons.

"Williams!" Durand shouted over the whine of the engines. "Take your team up the Eastern side of the town. My team will take the West. If you find any sign of what's happened to the civilians, radio it in.

"Will do." Williams replied. He turned to us. "Right, you heard her. Wesson, you're on point. Johnson, you're on rear guard. Let's go people, we could well be on a time limit here." Wesson set off towards the town. I followed him. Behind me was Smart followed by Williams and at the back was Ethyl. We approached the town. It was roughly square shaped and had a diameter of about three miles. This was going to take some time. We reached the main road on the Eastern side. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Apart from the huge lack of people anyway. We walked along the side of the road, scanning for any sign of life. We got none. We passed several houses.

"You hear that?" Smart said to us.

"What? I don't hear anything." Ethyl answered.

"Listen." He urged. There was definitely something. Talking? No. Singing? It was coming from the nearest house. "I've got something, here." Smart said looking at the motion tracker. Williams pointed at Wesson. He indicated him to take up a firing position at the house from the road.

"Cain, Smart, Johnson, with me." Williams said. We followed him to the door of the house. Weapons raised. We aimed at the door and windows. The four of us stacked up on the door. Williams and Ethyl one side. Smart and I on the other. Williams counted down with his fingers. Four… three… two… one…. We opened the door and entered the house. With our guns leading the way we spread out through the rooms downstairs. Nothing. Empty. The singing could be heard now. It was muffled. It was coming from the floor above. We went up the stairs, still aiming with our weapons. Smart referred to the motion tracker and indicated one of the doors.

"Three metres into the room." He said. Williams nodded at me and we rushed through the now open door. It was a bedroom of some sort. A small boy's most likely. There were posters of action heroes on the walls and comic books littering the ground. That's when I saw it. The most horrifying thing imaginable. A blue parrot was singing along to some God awful song. The other three breathed a sigh of relief.

"Stand down Wesson. Negative contact." Williams said over the radio.

" _What was it?_ " Wesson asked over the radio.

"A bird." Smart said. He began looking around the room at the different the toys covering the floor.

"Well I hope you guys were able to cope I their without me." Wesson said. The bird squawked and flapped its wings.

" _They are coming._ " The bird squawked. " _It's too late. They are coming._ " Now, I've never been one to heed warnings from animals that have a lower IQ than a digestive biscuit, but I was a little unsettled by the bird's message. I shuddered.

"We should probably leave, Sir." I said, shuffling towards the doorway.

"No, not just yet." Williams replied as he walked over to the bird cage.

"You're not planning on interrogating the bird, Sir?" I asked concerned. He looked at me.

"No." He said firmly. "I want everyone to look around this house. See if we can't find a reason as to why nobody is around." Smart and I looked at each other for a moment before following his orders. The team spread out through the house, trying to look for any clue as to where the owners were. We each searched separate rooms. There was nothing that could be seen out of the ordinary. We were about to give up looking when we heard a call over the radio.

" _Williams, have you got anyone over by the school?_ " Durand asked.

"Negative on that, we're all here." Williams replied into his radio.

" _Stand by._ " She said. We waited. One minute. Two. Five. It felt like an eternity.

"What's taki-…" Wesson began when he was interrupted by the radio.

" _Williams, we've found a survivor. Bring your team over to the school._ " Durand ordered. Wonderful, I thought. More walking.

"Affirm, moving to the school now. Williams out." The lieutenant said. "Right people, let's go." We left the house and began walking down the street towards the town centre where the school was. I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched the whole time. But that was impossible. There weren't any people around at all. We continued past the main high street where all the shops were deserted. After about twenty minutes of walking the school came into view. It was a single, two story building that stretched over two hundred metres wide and was as deep as three houses. We approached the main doors which were guarded by a member of Strike three. He acknowledged the lieutenant and took us to the captain.

The inside of the school was old, but only by a few decades. The walls were made of plaster and the roof was tiled by Styrofoam. The corporal from Strike Three led us down a long corridor till we came to a classroom doorway with the door left open. Inside were the rest of Strike Three. They were checking over weapons and their gear. The captain had her back to us. She was talking to someone but we couldn't see who. As we approached I saw a little girl sitting on one of the chairs. She was barely ten years old. She had short blonde hair and was wearing a school uniform of some sort.

"Now come on Emma, what happened to everyone?" Durand asked the girl.

The little girl shuffled in her seat. She clearly was uncomfortable being here with all these strange people. "They're gone." The little girl replied in a quiet voice.

"Gone where?" The captain asked.

"Into the warehouse." The girl answered. Durand turned to one of her team.

"Flynn, find out where this warehouse." She turned back to the little girl. "Why did they go? Were they taken?" Emma nodded. "Who took them Emma?"

"Monsters." She said, looking around the room, as if the very mention of them would summon one.

"What did the monsters look like?" Durand asked.

"They were big and purple and scary." Emma looked around. She was obviously scared and who could blame her? I'm surprised she was as calm as she was.

"Does that match any alien we've come across?" I whispered to Williams.

"I'm not sure." He whispered back. "These sound similar to something but..." He trailed off.

"Argent, can you come and take Emma on a walk for me? See if you can find her some food." Durand said, standing back up.

"Sure thing, boss." One of the men said. He slung his weapon around his neck and walked over to the little girl. "Come on Emma, let's see if we can't find us some food, eh?" He said with a smile. The girl dropped off the desk and took the soldiers hand. He led her out of the door way and took her down the corridor in the direction of the canteen.

"Right. Well at least we know where to start looking." Williams said.

"Yes we do. Flynn, have you found out where this warehouse is?" Durand asked.

"Yes I have. It's to the North East on the outside town. It was abandoned some time ago." A man with a sniper rifle said. He was consorting over a map of the town. "It'll take us just over half an hour to get there."

"Right, everyone saddle up. We're moving out in five. Cross, radio Argent and tell him to take the girl back to the Sky Ranger. I don't want to be having to worry about some girl when shit hits the fan."

"Are you always this optimistic?" I asked jokingly.

"Only on the weekends." She replied with a smile.

"What of these monster? I've not come across anything like this before." Ethyl pointed out.

"We'll deal with them, when we find them. Right now, our mission is to find and help as many civilians as we can." Durand said. Ethyl didn't seem quite convinced but kept her opinion to herself. Within five minutes everyone had checked their weapons and gear and was ready to move out. Argent had radioed back to say that he was taking the girl to the Sky Rangers and would meet up with us outside of the warehouse. With everyone ready, we left the classroom and the school and headed in the direction of the warehouse. I still remember having a worrying feeling that we were being watched. Wesson said I was just getting nervous and jumping at shadows, but something still didn't feel right.

After thirty minutes of walking through the grid work of streets we turned a corner and saw the warehouse, properly, for the first time. It was a large, grey building, three stories high. The windows were smashed in in a number of places. There was a corrugated frame that, when opened, was probably used to load and unload whatever was needed to make the factory function. A few metres down from that was a metal door. The entire complex was surrounded by a wide open space and surrounding that was a rusted, old, metal fencing. Everyone took firing position and secured the perimeter.

"Right we wait here for Argent and then we go in to find out what's happened to the town folk." Durand said. We didn't have to wait long. Just over five minutes since we had secured the area, Argent joined us. He was a little out of breath. He had clearly been running or at the very least jogging. I didn't blame him. I really didn't want to be alone in a place like this. With both teams now at full strength, we advanced on the warehouse. Both teams went through the iron gates that were hanging open. The chains that held the gates closed were cut and left in a pile on the floor. We moved over the open space as quickly as we could. Making sure to check for possible signs of life. We made it to the wall and moved our way down to the metal door. With both teams on either side, the door was opened and we filed inside.

The warehouse itself was almost empty. The few machines that were left were covered in dust and rust. Age had not been kind to them. We fanned out across the factory floor. The room we had just entered was about twenty metres wide and forty metres deep. As we moved, the two men with the scanners checked for any sign of movement that would reveal where the town's people had gone. Nothing. No movement. No sound. Just, empty.

"Where is everyone?" Ethyl asked as she scanned the dark room with her torch.

"No idea." Smart replied. We continued to search the factory floor until one of Strike Three called out.

"Hey, I've got something here." We followed the sound of his voice and all gathered around what he had found. On the Western side of the factory was a doorway which led to a corridor with stairs going down ward towards the basement. The corridor could just about fit two people in side by side. What made this interesting was that there was a trail of blood leading down the stairs, as if someone had been dragged that way. We all looked at each other nervously.

"Well I think we may have found where they've all gone." Wesson said with little humour. "Who wants to go down first?" He asked rhetorically. Oh how I wish he hadn't because before I could finish my thought Williams spoke.

"Thank you for volunteering Wesson. You're an example to us all." He said. Wesson smiled dryly and looked down the corridor.

"Everyone will go down. Strike Two will lead with Strike Three behind them. We find the civilians and work out what the hell happened here." Durand said. Wesson grumbled to himself and reluctantly took the first steps into the corridor. Behind him was Ethyl, myself Williams and Smart. Behind him was Strike Three. We descended down the stairs towards the basement. The power appeared to have been switched off so we were going through by torchlight alone. We must have gone down four floors until we reached the bottom of the stairway. In front of us lay a long dark corridor. Wesson nervously approached it and moved in. The corridor seemed to be getting wider as we progressed onwards. That's when I noticed there was something odd about the walls. They were covered in some sort of secreted resin.

"Hey guys. Hold on a sec." I said. Everyone stopped. They were on edge.

"What's the problem, sergeant?" Williams asked.

"The walls. They're covered in something." I answered. Williams looked for himself. His eyes widened when he saw that not just the walls, but the roof and floor were also covered. And it was getting thicker. As the corridor continued the resin on the walls became thicker and thicker. This was worrying because the corridor wasn't getting smaller, meaning that something must have dug out the walls and replaced it with whatever that stuff was.

"Everyone stay on guard. Something's not quite right." He said.

"What was your first clue?" I asked. He shot me a dirty look and then signalled Wesson to continue onwards. We must have been walking for what felt like fifteen minutes on this basement floor. I was beginning to wonder how much further this place went. Then the corridor opened out to a large room. It was square shaped and about twenty metres in diameter. The ceiling of the room also went higher. Almost double what we were just walking through. There were four pathways that led out of the room, not including the one we had just walked down. We spread out. Strike Two took the corridors on the left, while Strike Three took the ones on the right. As I moved into position I tripped over on something. Wesson gave me a patronising look before aiming his weapon back down the corridor. I looked down to see what I had tripped on and what I saw genuinely terrified me.

"HOLY SHIT!" I exclaimed. The others all looked round at me.

"What?" Durand asked. I didn't reply I was too shocked. She followed my eyes to look at what I staring at. At the end of my foot was a human hand, jutting out of the resin on the floor. It looked almost as if it were grasping for something. As I looked more closely at the floor, I saw it wasn't the only body part. There were all sorts of dismembered limbs, hands, fingers and feet. The all looked as though something had exploded them for the inside outwards. I was about to suggest we turn back when Smart cut in.

"Movement." He shouted. We all looked at him. "Coming down the corridor. Thirty meters. Moving slowly." We aimed our weapons at the corridor that Smart had indicated. "Twenty five metres. Twenty." It was just around the corner. I put my finger on my trigger and held my breath. As it came around the corner we all breathed a sigh of relief when we saw it was a man dressed in civilian clothing. We lowered our weapons. I shuddered. I remember asking myself 'why did I shudder?' and that's when I saw it. There was something very off about the way the man was walking. He was jerking as he moved towards us. His left leg was twisted backwards. A he dragged it towards us, he snarled and grunted at us. I raised my weapon and pointed it at the man. Wesson saw me and looked puzzled.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Something's not right." I said. Wesson looked back at the man and began to see what I was seeing. He too aimed his weapon. Both teams were now watching the man getting closer and closer. Then he stopped. Wesson and I exchanged glances, not lowering our weapons. The man froze for just a moment before he began to convulse wildly. Smart got up and was about to go towards the man to give him aid, but before Smart had even gotten out of the room, the man exploded for the inside outwards. The three of us were sprayed with a fine mist of blood and entails as eviscerated body parts were sent flying across the corridor. In the place where the man was standing was a horrifying creature.

The creature that stood in the place where the man was standing was a black and purple monster two metres tall. It had four legs that each ended in a metre long talon. The torso lay in the centre of the four legs. The creature had two arms that extended forward of the main body. Its head was almost insect like with a pair of razor sharp mandibles that looked as though they could cut through steel and flesh with equal efficiency. The entire body was coated in a sort of plated armour that interlocked to form what looked like a horrifying jigsaw puzzle. It matched the resin that coated the surfaces of the room and tunnels that we were standing in. The eyes of the alien glowed yellow as it looked at us. Where the hell had this thing come from? Before I could speak however, Wesson and Williams opened fire. The alien shrieked as the bullets of the LMG and the assault rifle tore the monster to shreds. It fell quickly, but not before advancing several metres towards us. My God was it fast. The death shriek of the monster gave off an ear piercing scream. We stood in silence as we stared. That's when we heard it. A sort of hissing noise. It was all around us.

"Movement!" Argent Shouted.

"Where from?" Durand asked. We all raised out weapons aiming down the corridors.

"I can't pin it down." He replied. "There's movement everywhere." The hissing was getting louder.

"Well maybe you're reading it wrong." Ethyl said.

"No he's right, there's movement all around us." Smart confirmed.

"Weapons ready." Williams ordered. There was a scream that was cut off far too quickly.

"Where's Flynn." Someone shouted. "Where is he?" There was no sign of the trooper.

"Argent! Argent! Did anyone see what happened to Argent?" I looked to where he was, but all I saw was his rifle lying on the ground. I scanned the room, hoping to find the source of the movement. That's when I saw it. At first I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me. The walls were moving. As I looked more closely I saw that what I thought was just the resin was actually an alien perfectly camouflaged against the wall. It was moving towards Smart. I was about to call out, but the alien jumped off the wall and landed on him. Before I could aim at the creature it had already lacerated him and ripped off one of his arms. I pulled my LMG up and opened fire. My rounds shot straight through the alien's torso, turning the body into pulp.

"They're coming out of the walls." I shouted. "Look at the fucking walls." The others must have noticed them now because the remaining soldiers opened fire. The shrieks of the aliens filled the area as they were shot off the walls or ceilings and cut down. Another man screamed as his body was mutilated by an alien that had dropped onto him from the ceiling.

"We've got to pull back!" Ethyl shouted. "We've got to get out of here!"

"Both teams fall back." Durand ordered. "Suppressing fire. Fall back." We didn't need to be told twice. We moved back to the tunnel we had come down. Wesson and I laid down the suppressive fire seeing as we were the only two heavies left. The others had all made it back into the entrance tunnel and were moving back towards the stair case. I was backing up through the tunnel as was Wesson to my left. Then my weapon ran dry.

"Shit. I need to reload." I said.

"Don't worry I got this." Wesson said with confidence. Throughout my years in combat, I've found there has always been something true about Fate and that is that it is fickle and has poor impulse control. Wesson's LGM stopped firing. He looked down at his weapon. "Oh crap. This isn't good." He said with a little too much certainty.

"Don't worry guys, I'll deal with them." I heard Ethyl say. Wesson and I were still moving backwards as we reloaded and we passed Ethyl, who had stopped and was facing back up the tunnel.

"What are you doing?" I asked worried. She didn't answer. She had her weapon slung around her neck. She put her hands up in front of her and seemed to brace herself against some sort of invisible wall. That's when things got weird. The empty round casings that Wesson and I had been firing rose up of the ground and started floating in mid-air in front of Ethyl. There must have been about a hundred of them. "What the actual fuck?" I asked as I retreated backwards. The purple and black aliens, having worked out which tunnel we had gone down, were now barrelling after us. Within ten seconds they'd be on top of us. Wesson and I still hadn't reloaded. Ethyl breathed in and pushed forward against the air. The hundred or so metal casings that were floating in the air suddenly shot forward. The result was as if a massive shotgun-like weapon had been fired and the casings were the pellets. They moved down the corridor as a wall at an incredible speed. The aliens that were covering the walls floor and ceiling couldn't move out of the way. The casings ripped through them leaving dozens of holes in each and every one of them. Bodies fell from the walls and ceiling onto the floor, littering the ground with dead aliens. That was all the break Wesson and I needed. We finished reloading and aimed our weapons back down the corridor ready for the next wave that was surely to be coming. We could hear the hissing getting louder.

"Right, let's catch the other up." Ethyl said with a smile. As shocked as I was at what I had just witnessed, I was more preoccupied with saving my own life to play twenty questions with Ethyl. We ran back to the stairs to see Durand and Williams placing something around the mouth of the tunnel.

"What are you doing?" Wesson asked and he ran past the two of them.

"We're sealing off the tunnel. We can't let even one of these things get out." Durand answered.

"Right that's the last one." Williams said. He picked up his weapon and aimed it down the corridor with myself and Wesson joining him.

"Good. Everyone, up the stairs." Durand ordered. We moved with so much speed it would have been quite amusing if we weren't running for our lives. This hissing, much to my dismay, was getting louder. We reached the top of the stairs and passed through the door into the factory. We took up firing positions around the doorway. I set up the bipod on my weapon as did Wesson. The others all took cover around the door and aimed down the corridor. Williams pulled out the trigger for the explosives.

"Fire in the hole." Williams said. He clicked the button. Nothing. He looked at the device in his hand puzzled. He pressed it again. Click. Click. Clickclickclickclickclick- BOOM. The floor shook as the explosives several floors down went off. The hissing of the aliens was replaced by an almighty roar as the shockwave and fireball moved up the stair case. The fireball shot out of the stairwell and dissipated as it moved onto the factory floor. Then silence. We all stared at the slightly singed corridor and stairwell we were just in.

"Well. That just happened." I said, not quite believing the events of the last half an hour.

"Yeah." Wesson said, a little stunned.

"Right, let's got see if it worked." Durand said, poking her head round her cover.

"Listen man, you can't hear them. They're gone. End of story." Wesson said, shaking a little. The effects of the adrenaline of the moment now becoming apparent.

"No, she's right. We need to make sure the tunnel is sealed." Williams agreed.

"I'm not going back in there." Wesson said. Clearly self-preservation was high on his list of priorities. Smart man. I know I sure as Hell didn't want to have to go down there.

"Fine. Cain, you're up." Fuck my life, I thought. I looked up at him. He stared at me, waiting. I sighed and reluctantly got up. I made sure I had full ammunition and moved towards the doorway that led to the stairwell. It was filled with smoke, which made it difficult to assess the damage without getting close. I edged forward towards the top of the stairs and looked down. All I saw was a dark smoky abyss. I slowly moved down the stairs taking each step as carefully as I could. Then I felt something touch my shoulder. I spun round expecting to see a horrifying alien about to tear me limb from limb. Instead I saw Ethyl. She had followed me down to give me some aid, to which I was very grateful. We moved down to the bottom of the stairs and saw the tunnel, of what was left of it anyway. The entire tunnel entrance was covered in rubble. There was no way anything was going to get past it any time soon. Once we had seen the damage, Ethyl and I ascended the stairs and reported back to Durand. I hadn't actually noticed how badly things had actually gone in the tunnels till I was back with the other. Apart from Ethyl and I, there were only three other survivors. Williams, Wesson and Durand. Of the ten who went into the tunnel only five made it back out.

"Well, is it sealed?" Williams asked.

"If it wasn't do you think I'd be here to tell you?" I asked with a slight hint of sarcasm as I walked through the doorway. Williams shrugged.

"Right, we're going to head back to the Sky Ranger and report what's happened to Central. Then we're going to blow this place to kingdom come." Durand said as she came round from her cover.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Wesson agreed, standing up from the wall he was leaning on.

"Right, let's get going." Williams said. We picked ourselves up and went back through the doorway we had used to get into the warehouse. Once outside Durand got on the radio to ask for a pick up from the Sky Rangers.

"Alpha two, this is Strike Three, request immediate pick up from factory." There wasn't a reply. "Alpha two, this is Strike Three, respond." Static.

"Maybe they're out of our radio range." Ethyl suggested.

"Unlikely. Nevertheless we need to report back as soon as possible. Let's go people." Durand ordered. We set off at a jog back through the town to get to the Sky Rangers that were still on the Southern side of the town. As we marched through the town, I couldn't help but notice that it was getting dark rather quickly. We had been in the town for some time now and the Sun was beginning to set. It took us twenty minutes to get to the Sky Rangers. We reached the edge of the town to see the Sky Rangers where we left them. Something was odd though. They hadn't responded, yet nothing seemed out of the norm. We approached the Sky Rangers with our weapons aimed. After what we'd seen today we weren't taking any chances. We reached the rear hatch of the nearest aircraft and looked inside. Empty. Williams and I exchanged looks. I drew my sword and moved towards the hatch that led to the cockpit. It was open. I slowly moved in ready to use my sword at a moment's notice. I looked inside and saw why the pilot's hadn't responded. The inside of the cockpit was covered with the eviscerated remains of the pilots. Blood was sprayed all over the windows, instruments and controls. I left the cockpit and went to go and tell the others. Durand and Williams were talking about something. Durand looked up at me.

"Well?" She asked.

"Dead. It seems that whatever attacked us in the tunnel managed to get out and kill our pilot." I looked over to Ethyl who was coming out the back of the other Sky Ranger. She saw our faces and simply shook her head.

"Merde." Durand said.

"Well this is fucking great." Wesson began. "What the hell are we supposed to do now?" He started pacing around randomly, just staring at random parts of the sky.

"Maybe we should build a fire, sing songs…" I replied sarcastically. Climbed out the back of the Sky Ranger and looked around.

"It's game over man, game over." He said.

"Wesson shut up." Williams said.

"I'll send a message to XCOM, tell them that we'll need a method of extraction. Unless any of you have the ability to fly a plane?" She asked. We all shook our heads. "Wonderful." She said with little enthusiasm. She left us and entered the Sky Ranger.

"So what do we do now?" Ethyl asked. She was looking off towards the town.

"We find somewhere to wait till we can be picked up, then we're going to blast this place to kingdom come." Williams said.

"Great. So where are we waiting?" Wesson asked.

"Durand's chosen the school to wait in." Williams replied.

"Why the school?" I asked.

"Because the school is easy to spot from the air." Durand replied as she stepped out the back of the Sky Ranger. "It's certainly big enough. And it's also got the added benefit of being relatively far away from that bloody warehouse."

"Speaking of which, what're we planning on doing about that?" I asked.

"I don't know. That's for the Commander to decide." She said levelly. "Right. I've sent word to XCOM. We should be relieved in about 4 hours. Till then, we'll have to make due. Everyone load up from the spare ammunition and med kits aboard the Sky Rangers. Once we're all set, we're moving off. You've got 10 minutes people." We stocked up on as much ammunition and equipment as we could carry and set off in the direction of the school. While we were searching we found a few claymore explosive mines which we picked up. Wesson didn't think we'd need them, but Williams didn't want to take the chance. As we walked back I couldn't help but wonder what I saw back in the tunnel with Ethyl. It just didn't make sense. I caught up to her as we were walking. I needed to know what the Hell that was.

"Ethyl?" She glanced at me as we moved. She was still scanning the alleys and streets just like everyone else.

"Yes?" She asked, turning towards me.

"How did you do that thing back in the tunnel?" I asked. My mind was still trying to comprehend what I had seen.

"What thing?" She asked a little confused.

"The bullet casing? The levitation? The saving-all-our-lives thing?" I pointed out in a rather patronising tone.

"Oh that." She recalled. "I'm psychic, remember?"

"You're what?" I asked. I was certain I had misheard her or something.

"Psychic? You know. You… did know, didn't you?" She asked. I looked at her confused. "Has no one told you?"

"No." I said bluntly.

"Oh right. Well yeah. I'm psychic." She looked at me and smiled.

"So you can read minds?" I asked, sounding a little bit more worried than I'd like to admit.

"Oh God, no. I'm not that kind. I just move stuff with my mind." She said with pride.

"There are other kind of psychics?" I asked intrigued.

"Oh yeah! There are loads. Telepathic, telekinetic, mind controllers... I'm sure there are others too." I made a bit of a distance between me and Ethyl. I can tell you now, I was a little more concerned about my situation than I was a few moments before. The thought of being mind-controlled was not something that I liked. Plus if people could get inside my head… well put it this way, there were certain things I didn't want people to know. And I know if they did get hold of it my life expectancy was probably going to drop very rapidly.

"So is everyone psychic?" I asked, a little concerned.

"Oh no. It's only me in our Squad. I think I heard Durand is too. One of the more powerful ones, too." Ethyl said cheerfully. Wonderful I thought. I looked round and glanced at Durand. She was checking her side of the street for any sign of movement. Well I now had an explanation as to why I felt so odd around those two. I'd certainly be keeping a close eye on them now that I had learned that information.

"Right." I said. "Well you learn something new every day."

"Yep." Ethyl said. I fell out of step and back into my place behind Ethyl as we continued towards the school. The Sun had set, but there was still some light in the sky as the last evidence of day clung on to the clouds. We finally made it to the school some twenty minutes later and went inside. I was last inside and looked around before entering. I couldn't see anything but that feeling that I was being watched was still there. Inside, nothing had changed since we were last here, which was good, because it meant there weren't any of those purple and black aliens around. We went to the classroom to figure out what we were going to do till the Sky Ranger arrived.

We waited in the school for some time. We had taken the precaution of setting up some of the explosives around the doors and corridors. If those things somehow turned up we'd be ready for them. I was the lucky guy who drew lookout so I had set up my machine gun and had it pointing down the corridor towards the main entrance. There was only one way they could come so it was easy enough to set up. All I had to do was wait. I was given the remaining motion tracker. The other one had been lost in the tunnel during our escape. If those things did turn up, I'd know about it before it happened. I don't know what the others were doing, because I couldn't see into the classroom from where I was but I'd assumed they were getting some shut eye. Lord know that's what I wanted to be doing at the moment. I was checking over my sword, making sure nothing had damaged it when I heard a beeping. I looked around and saw that it was coming from the motion tracker. Well crap. This was not good. I called the others straight away.

"Guys! I've got something on the tracker." The others came out almost immediately.

"Where is it?" Durand asked.

"Twenty metres." I replied looking down at the device. "Just beyond the end of the corridor."

"How many?" Williams asked as he came over to see for himself. I looked down at the device a little confused.

"Just the one." I said.

"Right, Wesson, Cain, you're with me." Williams ordered. Wesson groaned. I got up and we slowly moved down the corridor. I continued to check the device o I knew where the thing was. We got to the other end of the corridor. The blip hadn't changed position.

"It's just on the other side of this door." I whispered. Williams signalled us to either side of the door. He counted down. Three… two… one… we opened the door and on the other side was a startled little girl knocked over on the floor. It was Emma, the little girl we had seen earlier. We all breathed a sigh of relief.

"What are you doing here?" Wesson asked the girl as he helped her up. She seemed scared and upset.

"I… I… ran away from the plane." She answered timidly.

"Why?" Williams asked. While the other two checked on the girl I looked down the corridor, but they wasn't any sign of life. It was eerie.

"Because the monsters could find me there. I ran back here as soon as I could." She replied.

"Didn't the pilots tell you to stop?" Williams asked a little suspiciously.

"No. They didn't know I had gone." Williams and I looked at each other. Something didn't seem quite right, but we couldn't put our finger on it.

"Well come with us, we'll make sure you're safe." Williams said. He took her by the hand and led her back into the classroom. He gave her to Ethyl to look after and then went over to talk to Durand about something. As I walked back to my position I turned to Wesson.

"Does something seem a little odd to you?" I asked.

"You mean apart from the killer aliens, the ghost town and this girl that seems to just appear around the school? No. Seems like a pretty normal day really." Wesson replied.

"You just _fill_ me with confidence, you know that?" I said.

"Hey, I'm a people person." He answered with a grin. That smile was short lived however because one of the explosives placed on the front of the school wet off. "Shit!" Wesson exclaimed. I found myself agreeing with him. We both set up at the far end of the corridor and waited. Our weapons were locked and loaded. The corridor was clear. We were as ready as we'd ever be. The others were with us too. Behind me was Williams and to the right of him was Durand. I couldn't see Ethyl or Emma, but I assumed that they were behind the officers. I checked the motion tracker. They were closing. And then the lights went out.

"They cut the power." Williams said levelly.

"What do you mean they cut the power? They're animals, man, just animals." Wesson said. He was getting worrying nervous at this point. We all switched on our head and weapon torches. It was now the only light we had.

"Pull you shit together, Wesson." Williams ordered. "Cain, how close?"

"Forty metres." I said. "Thirty metres. Twenty metres." They burst through the door. The purple and black monsters ripped the door of its hinged as they surged down the corridor towards us. We opened fire. Bullets and shotgun shells ripped through the tide of aliens as they ran towards us. The front ones we killed quickly due to the incoming fire, but the sheer numbers of aliens propped them up and carried them a number of metres before they fell to the ground. Despite taking huge losses, the aliens were gaining ground. And we were going to have to reload soon.

"Wesson!" Durand shouted over to sound of the gunfire. "Use your rocket!" A smile appeared on Wesson's face. He stopped firing and switched to the rocket launcher on his back. He pulled it down and aimed it at the mass of writhing bodies, slowly edging towards us.

"Well any fucking time, sweetheart." I shouted. Wesson pulled back the trigger on his rocket and fired. The rocket flew straight into the aliens at the front of the rush. It hit the middle one centre mass and blew a hole through it, leaving a gap the size of a football in it. The rocket then impacted on the alien behind the first one and detonated. The explosion that ensued ripped through the alien horde incinerating those that were too close to the blast radius and ripping body parts from the others with the concussive shock wave. The explosion was so loud that a ringing set in and I was seriously doubting that my hearing would ever return. Once the smoke had cleared, the effects of the rocket could truly be seen. The hallway was covered in ash and limbs from the shredded remains of the creatures. The walls on either side of the explosion had been blown through and we could see into the adjoining classrooms there. I took the moment to reload. Far too often I've noticed that if you fail to make a point of reloading, Fate will be more than happy to stop your weapon firing. Usually, right at the moment when you need it to work the most.

"Well." Wesson began. "That worked." He put down his rocket launcher and switched back to his main weapon.

"Right everyone stay on guard, there's bound to be more of them." Williams said. We aimed our guns down the hall way where they had been coming from. The silence was deafening.

"Extraction team, where are you?" Durand asked through the radio.

" _Inbound, we'll be there in ten minutes._ " Came the reply.

"We'll light flares on top of the school for you." She said.

" _Roger._ " The pilot said.

"Right people, we're moving to the roof. Cain, you're on point, Wesson, you take the rear. Move it people." Durand ordered. We got up and moved purposefully towards the doorway. I checked the motion detector. It said nothing was nearby, but I didn't want to take any chances. We moved into the main hallway and found the stairway, leading upwards. We ascended the stairs till we were several floors up and we came to a locked door. I shot the lock and we went through it. On the other side was the roof top of the school. It was about half the size of a football pitch with the doorway we had come up on one of the smaller edges. Once everyone was through the door, I set up the final explosive at the doorway, ready for when the aliens came back. We spread outwards to get as far away from the door as possible. Durand lit two bright red flares and threw them down on the roof. We all aimed at the doorway and waited.

"How long?" I asked. Durand checked her watch.

"Three minutes." It was pitch black. We weren't going to see them, but we could hear the roar of the engines as they approached. "Right people. Let's do this." I heard the motion tracker making a noise and looked down to inspect it.

"Aww crap." I said.

"What?" Ethyl asked as she jumped up. While the rest of us were getting tired and exhausted, she seemed to just have a limitless supply of energy.

"I'll give you three guesses…" I answered.

" _Strikes Two and Three, we see the flares. We'll be there imminently._ " The pilot called over the radio. I looked up to see the lights of the Sky Ranger as it began descending. This was going to be close.

"We've got multiple contacts people." I told the others,

"Prepare to fall back to the Sky Ranger on my order. Until then, fire at will." Durand said calmly.

"If you insist." Wesson replied. The roar of the engines was so loud now, that I was certain it was going to land on top of us. Fortunately, it landed about fifteen metres behind us. That was when the first alien appeared. However it hadn't come up the stairway as we had thought they would, but instead it had climbed up the side of the walls.

"Target right!" Williams shouted. We turned to see the monster climb over the side and charge towards us. And it wasn't alone.

"Aliens left!" Wesson called out. I glanced to see three more aliens climbing over the ramparts of the roof on the opposite side. We were quickly becoming surrounded.

"Everyone fall back." Durand ordered. We stood up and started to move backwards towards the doorway of the Sky Ranger. As we moved, we fired at the aliens, but they just kept coming. When one was killed another just took its place. Wesson and I were the last ones outside the Sky Ranger.

"You two get on board. NOW!" Durand called. We stopped firing and turned to the aircraft. Wesson and I stepped on board and I heard Durand shout something at the pilot. We immediately took off, the rear hatch door still open. I looked back through the open doorway and it probably saved my life. As I turned I say one of the aliens jump impossibly high towards the Sky Ranger. Its horrible black mandibles snapping as it flew through the air, right towards me. I brought up my weapon to try and shoot it. I remember thinking, 'oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…' as I trained my weapon on it. I pulled the trigger and the alien exploded in mid-air. I looked at the others. Most of them gave me a relieved smile but Williams just stared at me for a moment before looking away. I took my seat in the spare chair and for the first time, in what felt like years, took a deep breath and relaxed. My mind and body had been on overdrive trying to keep me alive these last few hours, so it was no surprise that the moment I got the chance I fell asleep. Oh how I wish I didn't wake up. It would have made life so much simpler. I looked out the window and saw the sun beginning to rise. It looked to be a nice day. A thought occurred to me and I turned to Durand.

"So if we're Strike Two and Three, where are Strike One?"

"They're currently on a mission in Tokyo at the moment. Something about an Alien ship. I'm not completely sure. I wasn't given their briefing." She replied.

"I see." I looked around the Sky Ranger at the other people. I caught eyes with Ethyl for a moment before looking away. What she did in the tunnel unnerved me. It wasn't natural. Not by any stretch of the imagination. There was clearly more to this XCOM project than I had been told. I wanted to find out the answers, but at the same time, I really, really didn't. I thought to myself, after what happened today, I doubt much more could surprise me.


	5. Chapter 5

**Tokyo Mission**

When we got back, the situation was more than a little worrying. The Tokyo mission hadn't exactly gone according to plan. Somehow, Strike One went from finding a treacherous general on the outskirts of Tokyo to nuking the city centre. Yeah, not great, by any account. Unfortunately, being a sergeant at the time, I wasn't given a huge amount of information on the mission, but I did manage to gleam a few bits and pieces from various sources. The legality of those sources, well, that's story for another time. From what I understood, the events that went down were as follows:

" _Following the events surrounding the destruction of XCOM's primary base in North Africa, Strike One regrouped in Japan following a request for aid. A Japanese general had been suspected of brokering an illicit deal with the aliens in exchange for his homeland's continued peace and security. Strike One broke into his home in the dead of night to apprehend him, only find him murdered by an EXALT Assassin. The assassin's corpse directed them to the general's office_ _, where his computer opened a channel to an old adversary and a disturbing look into his files._

 _The Phantom, a name given to the leader of EXALT, turns out to be a suited, bow-tied and surprisingly snarky lady who claims there was an internal coup within EXALT following XCOM's destruction of their penthouse base. Having taken command, she now claims to have shifted EXALT's remit to be more in line with XCOM's objectives. As proof of her credentials, she warns XCOM of an imminent alien attack upon the city of Tokyo, as well as proof that the general was indeed in league with the aliens._

 _The next morning, a gigantic ship of unknown origin attacked the city, flooding it with alien attackers and a noxious gas which infected the populace with Chryssalid spores._ For those of you who are wondering, the purple aliens that Strike Two and Three had just encountered were Chryssalids. It wasn't until Strike One had returned that they were given a categorisation. _Strike-One, with the exception of the team psychic, used the Japanese air force as cover to approach and gain access to the craft via HALO jump. Inside, they found a mess of labyrinthine corridors, a screeching, wailing noise that refused to leave the ears, and pods of Chryssalids waiting to drop onto the city below. Despite the ship playing havoc with their minds, they eventually located the engine room and sabotaged the craft, taking heavy damage in the process._

 _Major Ben "Pipothy" Hawker_ _, meanwhile, attempted to mastermind a false surrender to the aliens to buy time for the strike team before co-ordinating a nuclear launch from a nearby Council submarine. Unaware of the impending explosion, Strike-One parachuted from the rapidly decaying ship right before the nuke hit it. They ended up on the ground in Tokyo, with little ammo and no comms, surrounded by infection, death, and millions of newly risen Chryssalids._

 _Strike-One evacuated from Tokyo with no fatalities. Perhaps a few years will be lost from radiation damage, but nothing too serious. Operative_ _Captain Conrad "Simba" Baltar_ _suffered severe injuries at the hands of the "Nemesis" bioweapon, but Operative Blackburn's heroism allowed him to escape with his life. The Nemesis is known to have mutated and remains at large as of publication of this report._

 _Initial estimates suggest the death toll of the Tokyo bombing stands at ro_ _ughly 80%. There are implications that those who hid from the blast in the subway tunnels did not escape the notice of the aliens for very long. In addition to the Nemesis, robotic forces appear to have annihilated much of the Japanese emergency forces sent into the city. The Japanese have since abandoned the fight and are focusing on containing the surviving Chryssalids. Despite their losses, Japan is grateful for XCOM's assistance in this matter, and have pledged their assistance in securing additional backing from the Council nations._

 _A not-inconsequential amount of tech was lost amidst the escape, including_ _Sergeant Simon "Fisty" Lagann_ _'s MEC suit. The Sky Ranger is also significantly damaged from the Nemesis altercation._

 **Chapter 5**

"Well it started badly, it trailed off a bit in the middle and the less said about the end the better. But other than that, brilliant."

\- Brigadier-General James Macabe

After we had gotten back we were taken into one of the rooms along the top corridor and debriefed. The man debriefing us was the same guy who had interviewed me when I first arrived. He still looked like a pompous little no-it-all, but that wasn't going change any time soon I thought. We were all sitting down on chairs and the old man wrote down various pieces of information from behind a desk. He looked up at us.

"So, things didn't go well then." He said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"No, sir, they didn't." Durand answered. She was sitting smartly, like a school girl being told off by her teacher. The old man looked back at his papers.

"Let me make sure I have everything correct." The old man began as he shuffling through his papers. "You went into the town and found it deserted. You then found a little girl, on her own in a school and followed her advice to check out an abandoned warehouse. Once inside you descended to the basement, found a tunnel and followed to which you were then ambushed by multiple chryssalids. Throughout the mission you lost a total of five soldiers and instead brought back a little girl?" He stared directly at Durand, not even blinking.

"Yes." Durand answered plainly. She was clutching one of her hands with the other. She was worried, but more so than what I would have thought. She was scared.

"Why did you bring her back?" He asked.

"Did you really expect us to leave her?" Williams interjected. The old man was silent. He turned to me.

"What did you do on this mission?" He asked pointed at me with his pen.

"Whatever I was told, sir." I replied. He looked at me, then wrote something down on a piece of paper.

There was a slight pause as the old man gathered his thoughts. Eventually he sat back in his chair eying up each of the surviving members. "With hindsight, you performed adequately enough. If you have any other pieces of information to add, now would be the time." All of us were silent. "Good. You're dismissed." We stood up and left the room. Once outside I sighed, relaxed. I really didn't like that man. He made me feel uneasy, which was concerning in itself. Not much made me feel bad about things.

As we walked away from the interrogation room, as it was known by the more senior members, Wesson caught up to me and fell in step. "Cain, what're you doing now?" He asked me.

"Not much." I answered. "Probably catch up on some much needed sleep." I said.

"Sounds like a plan." He said with a smile. He turned and wondered off down the corridor but before he went he called Williams. "Hey, Pops, you feel like a game of pool?" Williams smiled.

"Sure. But this time _I'm_ breaking." He answered. The two of them walked off down towards the REC room. I turned the other way to go back to my bunk and rest. I felt as though I really needed some sleep. This was turning out to be one interesting place. As I was walking along I must have taken a wrong turn or something because I ended up at a lab of some sort. I looked in to see what was going on. In the room there was a man. Or at least, I thought it was a man. The head was human, certainly, but the arms and legs looked robotic. He was roughly my height and seemed to be stretching for some reason. I entered the lab, curiously looking at the half man, half robot creature in front of me. He saw me staring and came over.

"Howdy." He said in a strong Texan accent.

"Hello." I replied. The metal man looked friendly enough, but after what I had seen recently, I was still a bit wary.

"That look on your face says you've never seen a MEC before." The man said with the sound of a person who was very sure of himself.

"A MEC?" I asked puzzled.

"MEC troopers. We're the mobile tanks that hit and get hit." I looked at him unsure what to say. "With the help of a substance called MELD, we're able to create people like me. Well I say create, it's more like build." He chuckled. I must have still looked confused, so he continued. "Whilst fighting the aliens we came across this substance, we decided to call MELD. With the help of the scientist or engineers we can use the MELD to upgrade our troops to fight with different kinds of upgrades" I looked at him and his robotic limbs.

"You go into combat like that?" I asked looking at him.

"No. He said. I go into combat looking that that." He pointed behind my left shoulder and I turned around. On one of the walls was a set of armour almost ten feet tall with a massive mini-gun attached to the right arm. The armour plating looked to be several inches thick.

"Wow." I said amazed.

"Yeah. _Wow_. These arms and legs come off and are replaced by those. They pack one hell of a punch, if you're on the wrong end." He walked over and patted one of the limbs like it was a trusted friend. I guess to him, it probably was.

"I can imagine. So this is what MELD can do?" I said still transfixed by the item on the wall.

"It's not all it does. For those who like a little bit less of a drastic change, the MELD can be used to genetically enhance a person." He put s hands on his hip as if he was holding on to a belt buckle. I guess old habits die hard.

"You mean like make them taller?" I asked. He laughed and patted me on the shoulder in a friendly manner.

"No, no. Nothing like that. No, it can make people see further, jump higher and have higher reaction speeds." The Texan grinned.

"Well that's not _that_ impressive." I said looking at the MEC suit.

"It can also make you turn invisible, in cover." I turned to face the man.

"Really?" I asked surprised and intrigued.

"Oh yeah." He said with a smug face.

"Well you learn something new every day, eh?" I thought for a second about the ability to turn inviable and how much fun that would be.

"Aye that you do." He said. "Well I have to get back to these tests. Right arm's playing a bit of havoc with the servos at the moment, but no real issues. It's been a pleasure…"

"Cain, Andreos Cain." I held out my hand and he shook it. Hs grip was like a vice.

"Fred Corbec. Well Cain, if you wanted, you too could get a sweet bit of kit like this." I smiled at him.

"Well Corbec, we'll see. But it was a pleasure meeting you."

"And you Cain." I left the lab and turned back the way I had come. I remember thinking that it wouldn't hurt for these people to put up a map every now and again. I mean, they can build all sorts of robots and armour, but they can't make a simple 'you are here' sign? Eventually, I found my way back to my bunk after numerous corridors leading me here, there and everywhere. It must have taken me over an hour to find it, but find it I did. I took my gear off and lay down on my bunk. I had no idea what time it was, but I needed some shut eye, so I drowned out the noise of people talking and joking and fell asleep. When I woke up I realised I wasn't alone. Standing next to my bunk was Wesson.

"Hey buddy." He said. I looked at him through half closed eyes.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to sit up in my bunk.

"We're heading off. We've got a mission. We're going with Strike One to find some researchers, or something like that."

"When?" I asked, not really wanting the answer.

"Now. Come on, get your gear." I reluctantly sat up in my bunk.

"What time is it?"

"Time you got a watch." I looked at him with a face that was clearly not amused. "It's 'bout eight. Now come on, you don't want to keep everyone waiting now do you?" I swung my legs off my bed and got ready. It didn't take too long to put all my equipment on. Within ten minutes we set off down the corridor towards the main briefing room. When we arrived I saw a group of people sitting down on chairs facing a board projector. Amongst the people sitting down were rest of Strike Two and a bunch of new faces, which I guessed were Strike One.

There was a Colonel at the front. He was about average height. He, like everyone else, was wearing the combat fatigues that seemed to be associated with this organisation. He had rather short, straight, brown hair that was beginning to thin towards the front. He had an air of authority about him. To his left was another Colonel. This one was slightly taller than the first. He had dark brown, curly hair and wore a pair of rimless glasses. He, like the first, seemed confident, as if he knew what he was going to be expecting. To the second Colonel's left was a major. This guy was really tall with long brown hair that went past his shoulders. He had a beard with a little bit of a moustache. He looked a little apprehensive as if the thought of what we were about to do concerned him. I didn't blame him. Thinking about the last mission, I too was a little apprehensive about this mission. On the second row of seats was a MEC trooper who held the rank of Sergeant. He looked as though he was of Indian decent. Unlike everyone else, he wasn't wearing any fatigues, but that was probably because he wore his robotic limbs and didn't see the need to cover them. The MEC trooper also wore a pair of glasses, behind which, were a pair of eyes that seemed to dart around the room a little, as if looking for something to fight. To his left was another major. This one seemed a lot calmer than the other and looked relaxed as he waited for the briefing to start. He had short, curly brown hair and wore a pair of dark rimmed glasses. He glanced at me curiously before turning back to the front of the room. On the far side of him was a corporal. He was about my height, maybe slightly taller. He had short, brown hair. He looked up at me and smiled. I walked over to one of the empty seats and Wesson and I sat down. The first colonel stood up and walked to the front of the room, next to the board projector and looked around the room.

"Right, I believe that everyone's here so we'll begin. For those of you from Strike Two who don't know who I am, I'm Colonel James Macabe. I'm second in command of the military side of the XCOM project, meaning, when I tell you to do something, you do it." The Major with the curly hair chuckled to himself. Macabe glared at him before continuing. "A week ago, an alien ship crash landed in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. It was shot down, but not by our fighters. The best guess we have so far is that it was shot down by aliens for unknown reasons. A team from EXALT of twenty researchers with a ten man security detail via sub to find out what exactly happened with this ship. Two days ago we lost contact with the research team and the security detail. Our mission is to reach the ship and find out what happened to the people they sent down there. It could be just a faulty transmitter, but we're not taking any chances. Because we're going deep under the ocean, there is a large risk of deadly compression, therefore explosives are not to be taken on this mission just in case we punch a hole in the side. Any questions?" The MEC trooper raise one of his robotic arms. "Yes, Sergeant Lagann?"

"Am I going to be allowed to take my MEC suit on this, or is it going to be too big?" He asked.

Macabe shook his head. "Unfortunately, you won't be able to take it on this particular mission."

"Oh wonderful." The sergeant said. Williams raised a hand.

"Yes, Williams."

"Can we replace the explosive grenades with needle grenades then?" A brief look of realisation flashed across the colonel's face, followed by a sudden red flush. He must have felt a little stupid not thinking up that himself.

"A good thought, yes, we will. Any other questions?" There were none. "Good. Let's get geared up people." We all got up and headed towards the armoury. We all donned our armour and picked up our weaponry. Things must have been going well in our little world because Strike Two was given some new equipment. Each of us were given a laser variant of our standard weapons. Wesson and I both were given laser LMG's, Williams had a laser assault rifle and Ethyl was given a laser shotgun. Williams also was wearing a weird type of helmet. When I asked about it, all he said was it was anti-psychic. Strike One seemed to have a variety of classes. There were two supports, a sniper, an assault, a heavy trooper and the MEC was of the assault specification. In total, we had an all-round balanced Strike force between the two teams which gave me some confidence in the mission. We each loaded up onto two Sky Rangers and set off towards Tenerife, where we were to land and go onto an EXALT submarine which would take us to the site of the crashed ship. The flight, as ever was rather boring. Not a lot happened. The team chatted as much as we could, trying to keep our minds off of what we were about to encounter, but nothing really worked, so in the end we all ended up trying to catch some shut-eye before we were plunged into another warzone.

We landed in Tenerife a few hours later. The landing site was a remote beach near a long wooden pier. We got off our various Sky rangers and were met by a tall man who appeared to have been waiting for us. He had long black hair that looked very badly maintained. He had a thick, dark beard.

"Ah, you must be the XCOM team." He said.

"What gave it away?" Wesson asked.

" _The shiny guns._ " The man replied with an exasperated tone. "I'm Edgar."

"Bit of an odd name." Ethyl said. Edgar just rolled his eyes.

"Who is your commander?" Edgar asked.

"I am." Said Colonel Macabe, stepping forward.

"Come with me. Bring your men. We're on a tight schedule." He turned around and started walking towards the wooden pier. We all followed him. I was a little apprehensive. The last time I was with the EXALT was when I was ambushing the convoy. I didn't trust Edgar. Not at all. He led us down towards the end of the wooden pier. I looked around. There wasn't anything boat or submarine around. I gripped my weapon tighter. This felt like an ambush just waiting to happen. Here we were, out in the open just sitting ducks. Wesson must have noticed my hand because he gave me an odd look.

"Where's the submarine, Edgar?" Williams asked looking around.

"Right here." Edgar said with confidence.

"I don't see it." The corporal said.

Edgar shook his head in an expression of disbelief and disappointment. "It'sa _submarine_. You're not meant to see it unless it wants to be seen."

"Well this is going to interesting trying to get on if we can't see it." The major with the long hair cut in. Edgar muttered something under his breath, I couldn't be certain of what it was but it sounded like 'useless lesbians'. He took the radio off his belt and spoke into it.

"Sub One this is Edgar, raise the boat, we're coming on board." The ocean to the left of the pier began to thrash wildly as an enormous entity erupted from beneath its surface. A large black submarine rose out of the water. It was forty meters long. The sides of it were streamlined with a substance that gave it a shiny appearance. At the front of the submarine was a large glass dome for which to see out of.

"Very impressive." The major said. "But I still don't see how we're supposed to get on." Edgar smiled.

"Open docking hatch." He said into the radio. A panel on the side of the sub slid open to reveal a doorway surrounded by what looked like rubber tubing. The rubber tubing began to extend from the sub outwards towards the pier. On the outside of the tubing was a hard like surface, very similar to that of the surface of the submarine. The final result was a rubber tunnel, the height of a man extended from the hull of the submarine. It was a full eight feet long, surrounded on the outside by a hard metallic surface that looked as though it could take a point blank tank shell and still be fine.

"Okay. Now _I'm_ impressed." Macabe said as he took in the sight of the sub.

"All aboard." Edgar smiled. Once again, Edgar led the way and we followed. He stepped into the tunnel, which barely even shuddered as the weight of several began to cross it. He moved to the hatch and turned the large circular handle on the door. There was a clunking sound as a locking mechanism was released and a hissing sound was made as the door was pried open. The two strike teams followed Edgar into the submarine. It was cramped in the sub, but not massively so. Being slightly shorter than almost everyone else I didn't have the issue of having to bend over to avoid banging my head, which, I have to say, gave me enormous pleasure. Once we were all on, Edgar closed the hatch behind us and locked it with a similar handle which was on the inside.

"Well… this is cosy." I said, narrowly avoiding bumping into several different pipes and bars that were jutting out from the walls and ceilings.

"Hey, it could be worse." Wesson said. I had to agree with him. It wasn't the worst place in the world. The inside of the sub had a very futuristic vibe to it. All the walls and ceilings were covered in a sleek metallic cover which lined the walls. The sub itself was split up into various different compartments. At the front of the sub was the control room where the sub was piloted. It was also where the large viewing dome was. The middle third of the sub was filled with small rooms for equipment to be stored and a medical bay in case in the event of a casualty and at the back of the sub was the engine room which powered the sub. It also used a form of electrolysis to produce the air needed to breathe.

"What? No pool room?" Wesson asked disappointedly.

"No, but we've got darts." Edgar said with a sly grin. Because there wasn't a lot for me to do, I went into thee medical bay compartment and sat down on one of the chairs inside. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was a seat so I wasn't complaining. Ethyl sat opposite me. The room looked very sterile, almost like an operating theatre, there were cupboards, a small sink and a bed for a patient. A red light on the wall began blinking. There was a sudden jerking motion and my ears popped.

"I guess we're diving then." I said to Ethyl. She looked a little uncomfortable. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm not a fan of being in confined spaces for large amounts of time."

"Well what's the worst that could happen?" I asked rhetorically.

"We die?" I heard a voice say to my right. It was the major with the curly hair standing in the doorway. I stood up and saluted. "Oh don't bother with that. No one else does."

"If you say so, sir." I said, sitting back down.

"It's Cain, isn't it?" He asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Major Ben "Pipothy" Hawker. Cain, can you give Ethyl and I a moment of privacy please? There's something I'd like to discuss with her." Ethyl looked a little confused.

"Sure, I guess." I left the room and Major Hawker closed the door behind me. I'd have been more interested, but I'm not sure I wanted to be in a room with the psychic much longer. It made me feel on edge. Come to think of it, the major also made me feel a little uneasy. Wonderful, more psychics I thought. I turned towards the front of the sub and started moving my way towards the control room. There wasn't a lot of room to manoeuvre, but there was just enough. I managed to make my way into the control room after bumping into three different people. There were a few cusses aimed my way, but I didn't really care. The control room was fairly large, about 4 metres wide by 5 metres long. Inside the control room were three work stations. All of them were manned. The one at the very front looked outwards through the large glass dome that covered the front of the sub. The man operating the large steering yolk in the middle of the console was Edgar. He must have been the sub's main pilot. On either side of the walls were the other two stations. The left hand side was manned by a person wearing headphones and staring at round circular disks on his control screen. I assumed that this was their sonar operator. On the other side of the room was a man staring at charts with a compass. He must have been the sub's navigator. I was hoping he was good at his job. I really didn't care for being on a sub for much longer than I had to be. Standing next to the navigator was Colonel Macabe who seemed to be looking at the last known location of the downed alien ship. He muttered something then turned around to see me.

"Ah Cain, good to meet you." He said.

"Sir." I replied saluting.

Macabe returned the gesture. "You don't have to look so worried you know." He said light heartedly.

"I'm not worried." I challenged.

"Of course not, course not." Macabe cocked his head to the side slightly. "Any reason you're up front?"

"Thought I'd have a look around." I said, looking at the various stations around the front of the sub.

"Well there's not too much to see, unfortunately." Macabe said as he turned to the rest of the room.

"Or do." I added. "How long till we arrive?" I asked.

Macabe moved back next to the charts and glanced briefly at them. "About two more hours, by our calculations. You might want to get some rest before we arrive."

"Aye, that might be a good idea." I nodded in agreement.

"If you can't get to sleep I'm sure you'll find something to occupy yourself." He said.

"I'll try." I said dryly.

"Good man." He turned back to the charts and checked it against his own measurements. I turned back the way I had come and passed the group of three. They moved out of the way a little quicker this time. I guess they didn't like the idea of being hit with my equipment by mistake again. I walked down towards the med bay to find Major Hawker leaving.

"Ah thank you Cain, you've been most helpful." He said.

"Have I?" I asked confused.

"More than you know." He said with a smile and walked off towards the front of the sub. I looked on after him, but in all honesty I didn't really care. He seemed a little odd and I wasn't sure I wanted to know what he was on about anyway. I went back inside the med bay to find Ethyl pondering something.

"Everything okay?" I asked. She looked up.

"Hmm… what?" She asked distractedly.

"Everything okay?" I repeated.

"Oh, yeah. Everything's fine." She said. I wasn't convinced, but I also wasn't sure it was my place to ask. So I didn't. I sat back down on my seat again and relaxed for a bit. I closed my eyes and let the world slip away for a while. Depending on your point of view I was either lucky or unlucky, because less than twenty minutes had gone by when a call came over the internal coms system.

" _All Strike teams come to the front._ " It was Colonel Macabe. Ethyl and I got up off our seats and went out towards the front of the sub. All the other members were already there crowded into the front of the sub. There were all looking out of the huge glass dome.

"Why did you call us up?" Ethyl asked.

"Look for yourself." The MEC trooper said. I looked past the heads in the way and out of the window. It wasn't as dark as I thought it would have been. The water itself was crystal clear. You could see hundreds of metres out. It was amazing.

"So what are we meant to be lo-…?" That's when I saw it. Out of the water came a silhouette. It was only a darkened outline at first, but then it became more distinct. Out in the murky depths was a large object. It was tall and sleek. A long shell like piece of armour covered the front of the ship. It started off as two points at the top which ran down two thirds of the wall and expanded to large sheets that covered its front. The ship itself stood on six talon-like stands which made up the bottom third of the ship. The entire ship looked almost like a giant insect or crustacean that would walk across the bottom of the ocean floor, looking for food. The ship was sleek. It wasn't anything like the normal alien ship we'd come across. I turned to Colonel Macabe. "I thought you said we won't get there for another two more hours?"

"We won't." Macabe said, not taking his eyes away from the view port.

"What're you talking about? I thought this was a fast sub." I said confused.

"It is… relatively." Macabe said. Edgar seemed to grumble something, but I didn't catch it. "But it's still going to take us a while to get there."

"What do you mean? I can see it." I said pointing out of the window.

"I know, but I don't think you realise how far away it is." He said. I looked at him a little disconcerted.

"How big is that thing?

"About two kilometres, maybe three." He said. My eyes must have widened a little because he nodded in agreement. I turned back to the ship. For what felt like the longest time we watched the submerged ship grow as we got closer and closer. The alien ship became more detailed as plates of armour could be distinguished from each other. Eventually the two submarines that had brought the scientists and the security detail could be made out. They were position next to each other, connected to each other by the docking mechanism we had seen when we had boarded. One of the subs was connected to the alien ship. It all looked so peaceful.

"Try contacting them." Colonel Macabe suggested.

"Subs gamma three and alpha four respond _._ " Edgar said. He turned to Macabe and shook his head.

"Is there anything on the life scanners?" Major Hawker asked.

"No. Nothing." Edgar replied.

"Very well then. We're going in." Macabe said in an authoritative tone. "Move us into position on at the nearest available docking port." We all left back down the corridor towards the boarding hatch that we had used to get onto the sub. Within five minutes we heard the ships engines slow down and stop. There was a whining sound as the servos for the docking arm extended the tunnel that we would be walking down. Once everything was in place and Edgar had given us the all-clear via the radio, Sergeant Lagann, the MEC trooper turned the circular handle on the door. There was a familiar clunking sound as the locking mechanism was released and the door swung open. On the other side was the tunnel but at the other end, the Tenerife dock that was previously there was replaced by an alien door. Sergeant Lagann moved down the tunnel towards the door. He turned back towards the rest of the tam who had their weapons trained down the tunnel. The MEC trooper counted down. Three… two… one…


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"A true warrior is never afraid to employ more unconventional tactics. These were merely unforeseen circumstances to a tactically sound manoeuvre."

\- Lieutenant Andreos 'Joker' Cain after literally throwing his weapon at the enemy

Lagann opened the door. We were greeted on the other side by a dimly lit corridor. The corridor was made of metallic sheets that lined the walls, floor and ceiling. It wasn't empty either. A little way down into the corridor, about ten metres was a body. Or what was left of one anyway. Macabe signalled for Lagann and myself to go and check it out. We cautiously moved down towards the body. As we approached, Lagann aimed his weapon at the body while I had mine trained down the corridor in case something came towards us. When we reached it we saw that it was a body. A human one. It was one of the security guards. He was quite clearly dead. His central body had a hole blown through it and out the other side. The wall behind him was covered in blood from where his body had slid down the wall. Macabe signalled for us to come back to the sub. As we began walking back towards the ship a blood curdling sound could be heard behind Lagann and me. We spun round and aimed our weapons down the corridor. It was an evil, deep roaring sound, which came deep from within the ship. It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but it was long enough to creep everyone out. Lagann and I began slowly walking backwards towards the sub. Seeing that everyone was very disturbed, Macabe took charge.

"Right, Strike One, we're going inside to find out what happened to everyone. Strike Two, you're going to stay here and guard the sub." Macabe said.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Williams asked.

"If we need help we'll call for back up." Macabe reassured.

"Yes, sir." Williams answered. Strike one moved off. The rest of us stayed on the sub. They moved off cautiously, but with purpose down the corridor. It wasn't long till they had vanished into the gloom of the ship. With the others now gone, Williams gestured for me to go over to him. I moved across to him and he took a quick look to make sure we were out of ear shot of the others.

"Is everything alright?" I asked. Williams looked me in the eye.

"Yes. Cain, I want you to do something for me." Williams said in a hushed tone.

"What is it?" I asked in an equal quiet manner.

"I want you to look after Ethyl. Make sure she stays safe." The look on his face told me he was serious.

"Sir?" I asked slightly puzzled.

"Just make sure that nothing bad happens to her." I looked at him for a moment before answering.

"I'll do everything in my power." I finally said. He nodded.

"Good." He said. Williams seemed convinced. More convinced that I was anyway. How was I going to keep her safe when we're hundreds of feet underwater in a submarine and trying to board an alien ship? It seemed ludicrous but I felt as though this was his fatherly instinct coming out again, being the senior in the group. So I agreed.

"Is that all sir?" I asked.

"Yes. That's all." We walked back towards the others who were sat waiting around the entrance to the submarine.

"You guys okay?" Wesson asked as he mulled over his weapon, etching something into the side with his bayonet. It looked like a fish.

"Yeah, everything's fine." I answered.

"Good good." Wesson smiled.

"What are you carving there?" I asked, pointing at his handiwork.

"It's my ex." He looked up from it for a moment to glance at me before returning to his carving.

"Was she a mermaid?" I asked.

"What?" Wesson looked up confused.

"Never mind." I said and took a seat on the floor next to him.

"Well seeing as we've been given guard duty, we're going to do it properly." Williams said. "Cain, Wesson, seeing as you two are our designated heavies, you're taking watch. Set up just outside the sub. I'll let you know if anything comes up."

"Wonderful…" I said in a bit of an exasperated tone.

"Hey, at least we get some alone time" Wesson said. I wasn't sure if he was joking or not, in all honesty. Regardless we got up, checked our equipment and stepped out onto the ship. There was an odd feeling about the ship. It made me feel a little uneasy being on it and I couldn't quite work out why. It could have been the ominous hallway that just seemed to go off into oblivion, but it seemed to be more than that. Wesson set up his laser LMG on the left hand side of the wall and I set up on the right hand side. We aimed them down the corridor.

"And now we play: The waiting game." Wesson said humourlessly.

"Well, it could be worse. I mean we're not being shot at, are we?" I said with a dry smile.

Wesson shrugged. Or at least tried to. The armour he was wearing was a little bit too bulky. It seemed to restrict some movement. "True, But I'm not liking this ship." He said looking down the corridor.

"I know. Hopefully the others will find out what's happened and we can leave soon." I said with as much reassurance as I could muster. Wesson and I must have been waiting around for a few minutes before something odd started to happen to him.

"Hey." Wesson said in an agitated tone.

"What?" I asked.

"Is it me, or is the ceiling getting closer?" He said, slowly shuffling away, back towards the sub. He was moving very slowly, but it was noticeable.

"What are you going on about?" I asked confused. Looked at the ceiling, but it didn't seem to be moving. "It's just a trick of the lights." I said, trying to calm down him down.

"I dunno, I'm just getting a little creeped out." Wesson said. He couldn't take his eyes off his surroundings. His eyes kept darting from ceiling, to wall, to the floor and back to the ceiling again.

"Hey, just stay calm." I tried to pat him on the back reassuringly but he shrugged it off.

"I am calm. But this isn't right. Are you getting a weird feeling? I'm getting a weird feeling." He was holding his weapon closer to him now. Not in a way that a soldier would, but more like the way that a child would cling to its teddy bear.

"Look, just wait a moment, I'm sure this'll all be fine in a moment." I said. I was tempted to call Williams or Ethyl so they could try to calm him, but before I could, Wesson stood up.

"No, I just need to get away for a sec." Wesson said.

"Hey, what're you doing?" I asked confused and concerned. Wesson picked up his LMG and moved back into the sub, onto the other side of the docking tunnel. Wesson made it inside and seemed to calm down quite quickly.

"It's much better back here, man. Are you sure you don't want to join me?" Wesson asked, back in his normal manner.

"What? No. Get back here." I urged, but Wesson was having none of it.

"No, I'm good here." He declined politely.

"We need to guard the tunnel." I said, gesturing to the dark, empty abyss before us.

"And I am. From here. Where I feel better." I looked at him, but I could see there was no point in arguing. We were both sergeants, so I could order him to get back here. In the end, I gave up and just went on about looking down the corridor for any signs of movement. About two minutes later I got a call via the radio from Williams. Apparently Macabe was on his way back with a survivor. And soon enough there were a pair of silhouettes coming down the corridor. I aimed my weapon at them. The memories of the chryssalids in the tunnel still hauntingly fresh in my mind. Fortunately, as they got closer, I saw that it was Macabe and a person who I had never seen before.

The man he was with seemed a little upset about something, but I didn't know what. He was dressed in a lab coat. This must have been one of the researchers that was sent down. He looked tired. Very tired in fact. As if he hadn't been sleeping for the last few days. Macabe acknowledged me as he escorted the man past myself and Wesson. I don't know where he took him, but I assumed to the med bay, seeing as he looked a little worse for wear. As the researcher walked past. I think I heard him say something along the lines of 'It won't let me leave' which was rather disconcerting to hear. I aimed my LMG down the corridor and waited. While I waited I pondered the big questions. Why are we here? What's the meaning of life? Is there an afterlife? I was so focused on my own thoughts that I didn't even notice Wesson behind me till he slapped me on the back of the head.

"What the Hell?" I asked slightly irritated, whilst rubbing the spot where he had hit me.

"We're moving off?" Wesson said. He gestured with his thumb for me to get up.

"We?" I asked.

"You, me, Williams and the C.O." He said plainly.

"No Ethyl?" I asked curiously as I got to my feet.

"Nope. She's got things to do on the sub _apparently_. Personally I think she's just scared." He said. The disappointment in his voice was impossible to miss. I just looked at him.

"She's scared?" I asked, not at all convinced.

"Oh yeah." He said with certainty.

"And you're not?" I asked with mild amusement.

"Oh I am, but _someone's_ got to make sure you guys don't get hurt." Wesson said with a slight grin.

"Aye, that be true." I said in jest. Williams and Macabe joined us moments later. Macabe seemed a little concerned, but Williams just looked eager to get into some action.

"Okay team, let's move out." Macabe said. We began walking down the corridor. The corridor seemed to go on forever. We walked for what felt like ages, but when I looked at the watch on my arm, it had only been a few minutes. Every bit of the corridor looked the same. There were no distinguishing features around it at all. It was very unnerving. Eventually the corridor came to an end and I saw a doorway at the far end. I felt a little relieved. As we passed through, I saw where the rest of the team had been waiting. The room that we had moved into looked almost like a canteen. There were tables everywhere and lots of chairs. However most of them were knocked over. Some had been moved to make a makeshift barricade. I looked around to see the members of Strike One guarding the two other doorways into this room. Everyone was here, apart from Major Hawker. I couldn't see him at all.

"Well, someone's had a party here." Wesson said looking around the room. He slung his weapon over his shoulder and sat down on one of the upturned chairs.

"Yeah, it doesn't look too good, does it?" I replied. I looked at one of the chairs and moved it aside. There was a single brass bullet casing on the floor. I picked it up. It looked like it had been fired from a small weapon. A pistol perhaps. I looked at it for a moment before discarding it. It wasn't like a bullet casing was going to help us down here.

"So what's the plan then?" Wesson asked. We turned to Macabe and Williams.

"We're going to move up to the bridge. Take a look at the ship's logs. Maybe they'll have a-…" Macabe was interrupted by the ship's loud speakers.

" _All personnel please report to the engine room. All personnel please report to the engine room._ " All of the members from both teams looked confused. They were on edge, and who could blame them? This wasn't turning out to be a normal sweep and clear mission, like it was supposed to be. I turned to Wesson with a thoughtful look on my face.

"I'm getting the feeling that someone should go to the engine room." I said.

"What makes you say that, Cain?" Williams asked with a deadpan expression. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

"Call it a hunch." I replied.

"He's right." Macabe said looking at the team of people in front of him. "Strike Two, you go to the engine room. Find out what's going on. We'll going to go to the bridge."

Wesson got up from his chair then a look of realisation crossed his face. "Wait, only three of us are going?" Wesson asked.

"I'm afraid so. We need some people to hold down this canteen if we need to retreat suddenly for some reason. That's why only a few are going to the bridge." Macabe answered.

"Wonderful." I said, checking my weapon again.

"Right, the sooner we get going, the sooner we can leave." Williams said. "Wesson, seeing as you've got the Titan armour, you're on point." Wesson sighed, but moved forward to the doorway.

He stood in the doorway for a second and dropped his head. "I feel amazingly expendable…" The three of us moved off down the corridor which was labelled engine room. The corridor, much like the one we were previously in seemed to stretch on forever and it probably would have, if we hadn't come across a door way on the right hand side wall. The door was closed. Williams signalled us to stack up on either side to get ready to go. He counted down from three. We opened the door. On the inside of the door was a long, tall room. There were, what looked like, stasis pods lining the walls on either side of the room that continued down to the other end. The three of us moved in. There was no sign of life in the room. I walked over to one of the stasis pods. There had clearly been something in there at one point. The inside of the glass pod was covered in blood and tissue. It looked as though it could have been a human, but it was impossible to tell. Wesson and Williams clearly had similar ideas to me. They were both looking at the stasis pods.

"Well… now we know where they were taking those humans they had abducted." Wesson said. He moved over to one of the pods then turned back. The look on his face told us he didn't like what was at the bottom of the pods. I shuddered at the thought.

"Cain, I want you guarding the door." Williams said.

"Will do." I said. Normally I would have argued and said Wesson should be on guard duty, but I didn't want to see any more of these pods than I had to. I moved to the door way and looked out. It was quite. Too quite. As if the darkness itself was consuming all the sound it could find. I checked my weapon. The last thing I wanted was a misfire. I looked back and saw the other two standing around a table of some sort. It looked like an operating table of some kind, but it was difficult to tell from this distance. On the table, there seemed to be a body. I couldn't make out any details from the doorway, but it looked human shaped. I looked back down the corridor. Empty. A laser weapon fired behind me. I spun round to see Wesson pointing his weapon at the body on the table. He had blown away its head for some reason. A reason to which I was about to find out. Williams and Wesson began walking back towards me.

"What happened?" I asked as soon as they got to me.

"I shot him." Wesson said plainly, his expression unchanging.

"Why?" I asked a little confused.

"Didn't want to take any chance of him coming back to life." He said. I looked over to Williams, he just shrugged.

"So he was dead?" I asked, directing the question towards the lieutenant.

"He was. He had a lot of his internal organs removed. I've updated Macabe." Williams said. I took a moment to think on this. Why would they remove the organs? My thoughts were interrupted by Williams, however. "Come on, we've got an engine room to find." We left the stasis pod room and continued down the corridor towards the engine room. We had positioned ourselves as before with Wesson at the front and myself at the rear. After several minutes of walking down a never ending corridor we, surprisingly, came to an end. There was a doorway. As we approached we looked through. Through the doorway was a walkway they extended over a large chasm within the ship. It was about thirty metres across. The walkway itself started off as one path which then split into two about eight metres in, moved apart, then came back together eight metres on the other side. On the far side of the walkway was another doorway, but because of the low levels of light, we couldn't see what was on the other side.

"Did I ever tell you guys I was afraid of heights?" Wesson asked, stepping away from the doorway.

"No. And I'd like to point out the _perfect_ timing to tell us this." Williams replied with a hint of annoyance.

"Well I aim to please." Wesson said with a smile that looked a little forced.

"Regardless, we have to cross this bridge. The engine room is almost certainly on the other side." I said, with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.

"Agreed." Williams said. We both looked at Wesson. He sighed.

"I really love you guys, but I _really_ hate you right now." Wesson said. He turned and began walking over the bridge. Williams went after him, followed by myself. The thumping of our boots on the metal walkway echoed down the chasm. It was unnerving. We had made it to the spilt zone and we all decided to walk along the left hand side. I don't know what it was, but a sudden urge came upon me while I was on the bridge. I've never been a fan of heights, but I'm not usually one to look down in case I got the urge to jump. But something told me ' _look down, look down_ '. So I did. I looked down, and the ship looked back at me. At the bottom of the chasm, forty metres down was an eye. Made out of cold hard metal. The eye itself was surrounded by metal spikes, which shot out of it. They must have varied in length between ten and twenty metres. On the spikes themselves, were corpses. Human corpses. Impaled on them. My eyes widened. As I looked down, I got the urge to jump, the voice in my head was telling me to jump. Only it wasn't the usual voice. This was something different. Something evil. I gasped. That was all that was needed. Williams and Wesson both looked round and me. Williams followed my eye line downwards towards the bottom of the chasm. He saw it.

"Oh shit." He swore.

"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap…" I heard Wesson saying. Clearly he was also looking down. Williams shook me. Whatever it was that had made me zone out lost its grip on me.

"Get back across the bridge NOW!" Williams ordered. We turned and ran. We ran back across the bridge towards the door way and it slammed shut moments before we reached it. The momentum of my running propelled me into the wall. I bounced off and would have fallen over the side if Williams hadn't put out his arm to stop me. I was about to thank him, but something else started speaking before me. Below us I could hear a mixture between shrieking and hissing.

"The other side." Wesson said. Again, we turned and ran. Back across the metal bridge. I saw Williams alter his equipment. He picked some things out of one of his pockets and threw two round objects over the side. There wasn't time to ask what he had done. Before we knew it we were threw the second doorway. The door slammed shut behind us and we were trapped. There were two distinct, loud crumps on the other side of the door, and then all sound stopped on the other side.

"Needle grenades." Williams said. "You've got to love them." With our escape now cut off, I looked at the room to which the three of us were now stuck in. The first thing I noticed was that it was big. Huge in fact. The room was about thirty metres wide and about forty metes long. The ceiling couldn't been seen, it was so high and the room was so dark. From the doorway were six large semi-circular generators, about three metres in diameter. They were spread out within the room. I saw on the far side of the room a railing, which is what caused me to realise that we were in fact standing on a platform of some kind. The railings wrapped around the whole platform and ended at the wall behind the three of us. Past the railings though, on the far side of the platform was a gem. A large yellow crystal that floated in mid-air. It was surrounded by machines that seemed to be probing the gem. The gem itself seemed to be emitting some sort of power. The three of us weren't alone either. Crawling all over the generator and machines were around thirty men dressed in lab coats. They seemed unaware of our presence at first. Their minds solely focused on performing repairs on the various machinery within this engine room. I felt uneasy. Much like I did when I was with Ethyl or Hawker. There must have been a psychic among them. One of them turned to us. He was wearing a lab coat, as were rest of them. He was a short man, who was beginning to bald. His face looked gaunt and his eyes looked tired. The man looked as though he hadn't slept for days. He approached us.

"Have you come here to help us?" He asked with a smile. His eyes scanned each of us in turn.

"Help you with what?" Williams replied. The head of the man turned to him, his eyes locking on. I couldn't help the feeling that he reminded me of a sentry turret that auto locks onto a target.

"With restoring God to his full potential." The man replied. "You are one of the faithful, are you not?" He cocked his head to the side. Wesson and I exchanged glances. I tightened my finger around the trigger of my weapon.

"We're here from XCOM." Williams said. "Tell me, where is your God?"

"He is all around us. Can you not feel him?" The man asked. I could. This God must have been what was making me feel uneasy.

"We can." Williams answered very unconvincingly. "We're here to take you home." He said stepping forward.

The man in the lab coat looked as though William's had just slapped him across the face with a wet fish. "Why would you do that?" He asked. "We don't want to leave. Our mission is not yet complete."

"And what _is_ your mission?" I asked. He turned to me. The eyes changing target from Williams to me.

"To restore God to its former glory." He said in a matter of fact tone. A hissing noise rose from beneath the platform.

"What is that?" Wesson asked, clearly unnerved by the whole experience.

"That is the sound of God's chosen ones. They are coming for you to show you the glory of God." The man started walking backwards towards the rest of the researchers.

"Cain, Wesson, check you weapons." Williams ordered. We did. Not a moment later the creatures crawled over the top of the railings. They looked like a hideous blend of human corpses and some sort of cybernetic machinery. Their eyes glowed blue, as did a lot of their mechanical parts. The fleshy parts of their bodies were a paling yellow. They stood up and moved as a man, but the faces of them were cold and lifeless. They charged us. Wesson and I had both laid down to set up our laser LMGs. Williams remained standing. We opened fire into the ten creatures that were now running towards us. Wesson and I raking our weapons back and forth, trying to hit as many of them as we could while Williams took precise shots, aiming for their heads. The first few fell within seconds under the sustained fire, but they were gaining ground. Unlike men, these creature did not seek cover, but instead ran blindly into the fire of our weapons. Two more fell as Wesson and I blew off their limbs. Williams took down another with a carefully placed shot into the heart of the exposed machine parts with his rifle. The last three we less than fifteen metres away from us now. We each took one of them as a target and fired. They fell. The last one dropping three metres from our position. I didn't dare think of what would have happened if they had gotten within arm's reach of us. We looked around. All of the scientists that were working on the repairs now looked at us. The three of us reloaded. These people must have been under some sort of mind control, to be behaving the way that they were. I didn't have any qualms about shooting them if they attacked us, but I'd have much preferred to avoid that situation. The man who had spoken to us before looked confused.

"Why did you do that?" He asked, looking at the cauterised remains of the fallen.

"They were attacking us." Williams replied defensively.

"They were going to show you the way of our God." He countered.

"Not my God." Wesson said under his breath. The man didn't hear him, thankfully.

"Will you not come help us with our mission?" The man asked.

"Our mission is to bring you home." Williams said.

"But we can't leave yet. We haven't finished or mission." The man said. The other scientists seemed to be edging towards us ever so slightly. It was at this point that the uneasy feeling I had been feeling became manifest. A ringing sound began and a voice spoke in the back of my mind.

" _Come. Join the others. Restore me. You shall be rewarded."_ I looked around at the others. Wesson's eyes had widened but Williams seemed not to have reacted at all. Wesson turned to Williams and myself. He looked at us.

"Hey guys, I don't know about you, but I think it'd be a really good idea if we helped out these men. I mean, they seem like down to earth guys, right?" Wesson said with sincerity. Williams looked at Wesson confused. The man in the lab coat smiled widely. Williams turned to me, the look on his face was uncertainty. The ringing was getting louder. I was beginning to get a head ache. It was then that I realised that this must have been what was controlling the scientists. I looked Williams straight in the eye.

" _Yes Wesson. I agree. We should so help them._ " I pulled a face at Williams to try and let him know what was happening. He got the message.

"Yes we will help you." Williams said. The man smiled again. "But first we need to go and tell our friends to come and join us." Williams turned to Wesson. "Get through that door, so we can get the others."

"Yes, sir." Wesson said. He moved towards the door and began looked for a way to open the door. Williams took me over to the side. The ringing still in my ears.

"If Wesson tries anything, shoot him. Don't hesitate, just do it." He whispered. I nodded and we walked over to the door way. Wesson was trying to get through now by shooting at the door. It was working, but it was clearly going to take a long time. Williams turned to the man in the coat. "Is there any way you can open this door?" He asked.

"No." The man said. Then a very worrying sound came over the ship's intercom.

" _Air is now being vented from the engine room. Air is now being vented from the engine room._ " Williams and I looked at each other. Williams turned back to the man.

"You must know a way of getting that door to open." He said with a slight panic in his voice.

"I cannot open it." The man said. He looked at the three of us with a sad expression across his face.

"But we're going to die." I said.

"If that is God's will, then so be it." He said turning back to crystal in the room.

"Shit." I said. Williams turned to Wesson.

"Come on Wesson, keep at it." The ringing was getting louder. I could feel my head beginning to throb. The voice spoke again.

" _If you kill the other two. I will let you live._ " It said. I thought for a moment. I could kill these two. It wouldn't be the hardest thing in the world. I like them, but if it's a choice between them and me, it's going to be me. If I shot Wesson now, I could kill Williams before he knew what was going on. Then I'd be free. I tightened the grip on my weapon. Williams turned to me.

"Don't you dare." He said. I looked at him confused. "This _thing_ won't let you live. Look at what it's done to them." Williams said, indicating the scientists. He was right. I couldn't believe I had just thought about killing my team mates. The air was getting thinner, only slightly, but it was noticeable. What I hadn't noticed was Wesson had stopped firing at the door. He swung his weapon round and fired point blank into Williams' chest. I didn't even think. I shot Wesson. His body flew backwards as the concussive force of my weapon knocked him over. Williams himself was sprawled on the floor I went over to him. He was alive, but winded. I heard the distinct click of a grenade and I ran. I pulled out a smoke grenade that I had been carrying and tossed it behind me. With Wesson wearing Titan armour, he was slow, but tough to kill. I dived behind one of the generators. The thump of the grenade went off. Needles shot off in all directions. There was a cry of pain that came from Williams' position. I couldn't see now because of the smoke. I checked my weapon. The ringing was louder, now that I was further into the room. The air was still thinning. There was another click of a grenade. I braced myself. Once again, there was another crump as the needles shot off on all directions. Williams cried again in pain.

" _Air is now returning to the engine room. Air is now returning to the engine room._ " I sighed a relief but it was short lived. I looked out from behind my cover to see the situation. The smoke was beginning to clear. Wesson was still lying on his back, as was Williams. Williams' legs looked as though they had been shredded. The armour he was wearing in tatters. I was about to move back in when I saw the blast door, that Wesson had been shooting, suddenly open. On the other side was Sergeant Lagann, the MEC trooper. He looked at the bodies in front of him in confusion.

"What the Hell is going on?" He asked, worried and confused. He stood in the doorway. There was a loud clunking sound and he looked up. The door that was over Lagann suddenly came down. The MEC trooper caught it. Any normal man would have been crushed instantly, but the augmentation allowed Lagann to have a form of super human strength, although, the sound of his servos suggested that they couldn't hold onto the door forever. That was my chance. Who knew if that door would open again? I got up. As if to approve of my actions, I heard Williams shout for me to run. And I did. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me towards the door. As I ran I saw Williams sit up and aim his gun towards Wesson. I passed Williams. Wesson sat up and fired. But not at me. He fired at Lagann. The shot hit him square in the chest. He fell backwards, releasing his hold on the door. As the door down, I dived through it. Just as my legs past through to the other side, the door slammed shut. I got up and helped Lagann to his feet.

"We need to go. NOW!" I shouted.

"What the Hell just happened?" Lagann asked.

"No time to explain, just run." I ran off. A moment later I heard Lagann's footsteps on the metal bridge behind me. The ship was shaking now. Something had changed, but I couldn't put my finger on it. We ran down the corridor that the three of us had walked down earlier. We passed the stasis pod room. There was a call on the radio.

" _Lagann, are you there_?" It was Macabe.

Lagann pressed a button on his earpiece. "Yes I'm here. I have Cain with me." Lagann replied.

" _How close are you? We need to leave right now_." Macabe urged.

"We'll be there very soon." Lagann said.

" _Well hurry up. If you're not here in five minutes we're leaving_." Macabe said. The radio went off.

"Well this day just keeps getting better and better." I panted as we ran. The two of us made it to the canteen and kept running. Past the tables and benches and down the first corridor. The ship shook violently and Lagann and I lost our footing. As soon as we got it back we continued running towards the sub. We turned the last corner and there it was. The sub. We got to the docking port and crossed the rubber bridge. As soon as we were through, Lagann and I we pushed out of the way. Macabe closed the door behind us and turned the door lock. There was an audible clunk as the locking mechanism closed.

"We closed up." Macabe shouted down the corridor of the sub. The submarine lurched forward as the engines powered us away. I sat on the floor panting. After I had caught my breath I moved over to the med bay. Inside was not how I remembered it. There were two dead bodies lying on the floor. As well as the two bodies, Major Hawker was also lying down on the med bay bed. He seemed to be severely panicked by something. I didn't know what, but he kept on looking behind him. I looked at Ethyl who was sitting on one of the chairs. She looked up at me. I shook my head. She didn't react at first, she just slumped down in her chair. I sat opposite her.

"What happened here?" I asked her. She looked back at me.

"Horrible things." She replied. I looked away for a moment. "I should have gone with you guys." She said. I looked at her.

"No. No you shouldn't." I said. I sat back in the chair I was in and closed my eyes. The horrible thing was every time I closed my eyes all I could see was the gem. Floating there. I tried to get some sleep on the journey back, but in all honesty I was too scared to fall asleep. The alien ship was something that we had never come across before. And this talk of Gods? This was something well above my pay grade. All I knew was that I needed a break. A long, long break.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"I'm sorry. Actually not sorry, just amused."

\- Mr W after hearing about the latest mission

Moments before we had undocked, the alien ship was rising from the surface of the sea bed. Apparently the research team was able to get the ship into a working order. It rose a good few hundred metres off the floor before an internal explosion ripped through the ship. It tilted sideways and fell back towards the sea bed. It landed on its side next to a large underwater chasm. With a little help from Edgar's torpedoes, the ship was nudged over till it fell down the chasm.

The journey back was quiet. No one really spoke about what had happened on the alien ship. Major Hawker didn't improve on the journey back, at least not by any noticeable amount. I asked Macabe what was going to happen with regards to me and Strike Two, but he said he didn't know. To say things had gone from bad to worse, was an understatement, but there was nothing that could be done about it. Macabe requested a nuclear strike on the last known location of the alien ship, but it was denied by the council, for reasons unknown. With the mission over, Edgar brought the remaining member of XCOM back to the dock where we had first set foot on the submarine. We left and said our goodbyes, then boarded the Sky Rangers. I couldn't help but notice the two empty seats where Wesson and Williams sat. I tried to take my mind off of it, but all I could think about was the terrifying things I had seen on the ship. The eye, the pods, the gem and the creatures. All of them burned into my memory. When we arrived back at XCOM, as soon as I had taken my combat gear off I was taken to the debriefing room. Once again I sat opposite an old man, who wrote down meticulously any details that he deemed relevant or important.

"You seem to be having a run of bad luck." The man said, looking up from the papers on his desk.

"That's one way of putting it." I replied.

"In two missions, three members of Strike Two have been killed. Almost immediately after you joined the XCOM project." He said, looking me square in the face.

"What are you trying to say?" I asked defensively.

"Nothing. I just thought it was an interesting coincidence." He said calmly.

"I'm sure." I said, not at all convinced.

He put his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands. Felt the uneasiness sweep over my body, from head to toe. "So tell me about Wesson." He said, changing the subject.

"What do you want to know?" I asked. The chair underneath me seemed to sense my concern and groaned, mockingly.

"Did he seem to be acting strangely before the incident?" The old man asked.

"No. Well yes, but no different to what he's normally been like." I answered.

"I see." He said, jotting something down on the paper in front of him. "Why do you think he shot Lieutenant Williams then?"

"I told you before. He was under the influence of the gem." The man stopped and looked through some of the papers that he had already written down on and pulled one out.

"Yes, this would be the same gem that was… speaking to you too?" The man asked with a voice that wasn't at all convinced by what I was saying.

"Yes. It offered him a chance to survive. If he killed us, he got to live." I said. I hated this part of the job. I felt like I was being interrogated each time I entered this room.

"And how do you know this?" He asked.

"Because it offered me the same deal." I replied. The man stopped writing and looked up from his notes. His eyebrow cocked in an intrigued state. The expression would have looked almost comical, if it wasn't for the fact that this man probably didn't have a funny bone in his body.

"It spoke to you too?" He asked with a hint of surprise.

"It did." I answered.

The old man looked suspiciously at me through squinted eyes. "But you didn't take the deal?" He asked slowly.

"I didn't shoot either of them, to get away, if that's what you mean." I said. He looked down at his notes and wrote something.

"But you said here, that you shot Wesson, yourself." He said, holding up the piece of paper he had written down on.

My heart stopped for a moment. That didn't look good at all. "That was in self-defence." I pointed out. He took a moment to think before continuing his questioning.

"Did the gem say anything else to you?" He asked.

"No." I replied with certainty

"Are you sure. This could be very important." The old man persisted.

"Yes, I'm sure. There wasn't anything else." I said. The uneasiness came over me again. I shuddered in my seat, causing the chair to groan and creak. At least, he seemed satisfied.

"Very well. Moving on to Williams. Did he seem at all compromised by the event?"

I thought back to the events on the ship. Williams seemed almost oblivious to the mind words of the gem. I couldn't understand why. He was as human as we were, but he seemed unfazed "No sir, he didn't. I don't even think he knew the thing was speaking to us. At least not at first."

"Not at first?"

"Well the longer we were in the presence of the gem, the louder and stronger the messages of the gem became. He might have begun to hear it towards the end of the events."

"So you're advising against prolonged exposure to the device?" The old man asked with an emotionless face.

"Unless you want to end up a mindless vegetable, then yes." I replied.

"Well quite." He wrote something down on the papers in front of him.

"Is that all, sir?" I asked. Hated being in that room. I just wanted to leave.

"No. Not yet." He replied, not looking up from his notes.

"What now?" I muttered to myself. The chair underneath me groaned as if to disapprove of my disrespect.

"Why did Corporal Johnson stay on the submarine?" HE asked, once he had finished writing.

"I don't know. She didn't want to go on the ship. Who can blame her?" I pointed out. None of us really wanted to go onto that ship. Well maybe Williams did, but he always liked the thought of action.

"Did you not think it prudent to ask?" The old man asked me.

"There wasn't time. We were moving into the ship before I knew that Ethyl wasn't coming." The old man took a moment to reflect upon this.

"I see." The old man said after an awkward pause. He noted something down on the paper in front of him. "That will be all, Cain. You're dismissed."

"Sir." I said. I got up and left the room. I was relieved he told me to go. I couldn't bear to stay in that room much longer. The questions the memories. I couldn't shake the feeling of what that gem had done to Wesson and what it tried to do to myself and Williams. It was at that point that I personally made it my mission to stop whatever they were. It was more than just a job from that point onwards, it was personal. Once I was outside of the briefing room I sighed from relief. Even though the other two had died, I had survived, so I could take some comfort in that. I walked down towards the barracks to find my bunk. I needed some. Eventually I found my bunk in the wall and got undressed. I got into my bed and let all the tension in my body go. Within moments I had fallen asleep.

I woke up a couple of hours later, feeling refreshed and ready for just about anything. I had, for the first time in weeks managed to get a decent amount of sleep. I swung my legs out, over the side of the bed and stood up. I felt the cold floor on my bare feet and immediately sat back down again. Maybe some socks were in order, I thought. I decided I might as well get ready seeing as I was fully awake, thanks to XCOM's lack of heating. I put on a shirt and some trousers and got up. The clock next to my bed said 7:00am. Perfect, it was time for breakfast. I got the rest of my fatigues on and headed in the direction of the mess hall. I walked out of the billets and walked down the corridor. The base seemed surprisingly quiet. There weren't many people up and about, just the odd few people, here and there. I turned into the mess hall and got into the queue for the food. As I approached, the smell of bacon and sausages filled me with hope that I'd be getting better food than the grey sludge that we had been eating the last few days. I was not disappointed. In front of me was an array of sausages, meats, eggs and even beans. I was finally going to have a good meal here. I scooped up as much as I could, to the point where my plate was over flowing and went to find a seat on one of the benches. As I scanned for a seat, I noticed Ethyl sitting down on one of the tables. I walked over to her and sat down. She looked up at me.

"Hey." She said quietly.

"Hey." I replied. "You okay?" I asked. She seemed very distant. The happy cheerful girl was gone. The person in front of me was a sad, lonely girl.

"Yeah. Just still not that used to saying bye to people." She looked away down to her breakfast in front of her. It looked as though she had barely touched it.

"I know the feeling." I said. I tried to come up with some words to try and cheer her up, but nothing came to mind.

"It doesn't get any easier, does it?" She asked after a slight pause. Her voice was barely audible.

"No." I answered. "You just find better ways of coping." I replied. I thought it would be good at that point to try and change the subject. "Have you seen this food? It's amazing."

"Yeah, most of their breakfasts are like this." She said, with a slight smile.

"Well, thank God. Some real good food here." I said with a smile. She smiled back.

Ethyl tilted her head to the side and looked like she was thinking about something. "So tell me, Cain, where are you from?" She said eventually.

"Me? I'm from here and there. Originally England, but that was a long time ago." I thought back to my home in England. My friends. My family…

"What happened?" She asked.

"Oh some minor differences of opinion on morality resulted in me leaving. I ended up with some mercenaries and somehow wound up here." I picked up a large piece of bacon and shovelled it into my mouth.

"Quite the story…" She trailed off. She picked up her fork and starting poking her food.

"You'd think, but I've never been one for telling stories." I said, cutting up one of the eggs.

"No?" She asked inquisitively.

"Never had anything worth telling a story about." I informed her.

"Ah. I see." She nodded, but her voice didn't sound very convinced.

"What about you? Where do you come from?" I asked, curiously.

She looked down at the table. "If it's alright, Cain, I'd prefer not to go into _that_ story, just yet."

"Sure that's fine with me." I said. She seemed distracted by something.

"I'm sorry, Cain, I've got to go." Ethyl said, as she stood up.

"Where are you off?" I asked.

"I need to sort some things out." She said firmly.

"I see. Okay. Well I'll see you later…" I trailed off. She had already started walking towards the exit. That was weird, but in all honest, in a place like this, what exactly was normal? Since I was on my own, I finished my breakfast quickly and left the mess hall. There were a lot more people milling around by the time I had finished which comforted me slightly. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think the thought of other people being around to deal with a problem, instead of me, made me feel better. While I was walking around, I decided to go and explore the barracks a bit. I'd been there a while, but I'd not actually taken a look round anything. As it turned out, I'd been missing out.

The barracks itself was split into four levels. The top two levels were filled with billets and the mess hall, to which I'd already visited, but the lower two, I had no idea about. On the third sub level of the barracks was a recreational room. There were pool tables, dart boards and a TV in the corner. Also on the third level was a gym, for those who fancied a bit of exercise. Seeing as we couldn't really run around the hall ways and the immediate outside environment was a little hostile, I thought it was quite a good idea. On the forth sub level of the barracks was a firing range.

The facility had an assortment of weapons, most of which were the conventional firearms, but there were also some laser and plasma weaponry there, too. I walked over to one of the walls where the plasma weaponry was being stored. I eyed up the heavy plasma. It looked big, and it looked power. I wanted a go. The range itself was 50 metres from the firing line to the target. Signed out the heavy plasma, picked it up and went to the first firing station. It was a beast of a weapon, it weighed as much as you would think. I just hoped it would pack a punch. I lay down with the weapon and set it up. I pulled out the bipod from underneath it and looked down the sight. Fifty metres down range was a cardboard target in the shape of a small greyish alien, with large black eyes. I aimed for centre mass, controlled my breathing and fired.

The resulting explosion of debris was amazing. Flaming pieces, melted by plasma fire littered the ground. I had never seen a wall explode in such a way before. Unfortunately, my first attempt had missed the target, quite widely, as it wasn't the wall behind my target that exploded, but the wall on the lane to my right. I wasn't put off though, and lined up again. This time when I fired, the alien target I was aiming for disappeared in a moment as the plasma ripped through the card. I was fairly satisfied by the event. I set up another target on my lane and repeated the process. In the thirty minutes or so that I was shooting in the gallery, I hit about twenty targets. Only about seven I hit first time, but I blamed that one the weapon. Regardless, I was feeling pretty good about myself when the long haired major turned up. I had just finished shooting at a target when he approached me. Like everyone else, he was in his fatigues. I stood up and saluted. He saluted back.

"You're Cain, right?" He asked.

"I am." I said, looking at the ruined targets at the far end of the range.

"Good. You're needed in the briefing room, you've got a mission." He said. I never really realised how tall he was until I was standing next to this major.

"Why wasn't I contacted by radio?" I asked.

"We tried. You didn't answer." He looked around. "Where is your radio…?" I looked around too. It wasn't there.

I shrugged. "I'm sorry, I must have left it on my bunk."

"Not to worry, but don't do it again." The major smiled, but a part of me wasn't sure if he was joking around or not.

"Yes, sir." I said.

"Now come on. We don't want to keep Macabe waiting." He turned towards the door and I feel in step behind him.

"Does he have a temper?" I asked as we began walking.

"No. But he does have the power to make life… difficult." He said. The look on his face showed that he was thinking about something. Whether that thing was good or bad, was impossible to tell.

"I'm sure." I said. "Sir, what is your name by the way?" I asked.

He glanced at me for a moment with the look of surprise crossing his face. "Major Joel Foreman."

"Thank you, sir." I said, making a mental note of the name.

"It's alright. And you don't have to call me sir, you know." He said, chuckling. "We're not _that_ strict on the subject."

"Yes, sir." I said.

"Unless central or the commander are around." He smiled. We continued walking along to the main briefing room. I was a little apprehensive. I mean, Ethyl and I were the only members of Strike Two to make it back from the mission. Part of me wishes I had stayed with Ethyl on the submarine. Regardless, Foreman and I entered the room to find Colonel Macabe, Sergeant Lagann and a Major, whose name I did not know, waiting for us.

"Good, you're hear." Macabe said. He gestured to a seat. "Sit down." Once Foreman and I had claimed our seats he continued. "Well as I'm sure you are all painfully aware, the last mission was not a standard mission, to which we normally go on. We lost two good people, but we have gained some information." I looked around the room. Everyone was listening intently. "The ship, was not of any design any have come across before. The civilians on board the ship were convinced it was a God of some sort. I've never been a hard believer, but I think they were telling the truth. It was extremely powerful and had a sentience the likes of which have never been seen. High Command has, for the meantime allowed us to refer to these ships as Old One Gods." I thought for a moment, then it hit me.

"Sir, did you just say, _these_? Meaning, more than one?" I asked a little concerned. I had witnessed first-hand what one of them would do, I was terrified what two might be able to do. The Colonel looked at me.

"Yes. We believe that the Arachnus is also an Old One God, of similar design to the one at the bottom of the ocean." Macabe confirmed.

" _Wonderful_." Lagann said in a sarcastic tone.

"Quite. For the moment it doesn't matter however. We have more pressing issues. Shortly before we departed for the mission, we received a transmission from the Aliens, specifically from the Ethereal High Command."

"Today just keeps getting better and better." I muttered under my breath. No one seemed to have heard.

"Well, when I say _we_ , I don't just mean XCOM." We all looked at the Colonel a little confused. "No, the message was broadcast to the entire world." There was a slight pause. We could have heard a pin drop.

"Well this probably isn't good." Lagann said.

"Do you have the message?" The Major, whose name I didn't know, asked.

"We do. I'll play it for you now." Macabe moved out of the way to make room for a large white screen that descended out of the ceiling. Behind us, a projector could be heard switching on. The lights dimmed. An image flickered onto the screen before us. The image was of a tall alien, robed in a red gown. An ornate helmet covered all of its features. Even though it was only a video, the alien emitted power and I shuddered a little. It spoke.

" _Greetings and salutations, New Ones. I am Aximili Gabranth Malakas Qo'slan, High Chancellor of the Ethereal Ones, and friend to all living creatures._

 _Long have you suffered resisting our benevolent rule. Your reluctance to submit is natural. On behalf of our species, and all the species in our Empire, we salute your fortitude, integrity, and prowess on the battlefield. Your race is hardy and gifted, and you will make fine additions to our nation._

 _In accordance with the bargain made, we have returned to your planet to claim your obedience and service. Lay down your arms and surrender your ships, and you will not be harmed. We have pressing need of each of you for what lies ahead._

 _The universe is a vast place, New Ones. In ancient days my kind scoured it to bring enlightenment to the primitive species. But in the darkness between worlds we found a grave, terrifying threat. The Old Ones, the true masters, slept in the darkness between the worlds, ancient beyond count and impervious to harm. And we knew that someday they would awaken again._

 _Now the Old Ones have returned...they are coming to feast on our galaxy, as they have so many times before. Your destiny, like that of all the galaxy's races, is now a choice between submission and annihilation. We offer a beacon of hope to you, but you must be ready. You must be_ MADE _ready. Only by fighting together shall any of us survive the coming darkness._

 _Thus far, we have shown only the barest hint of our power, to see if you were truly ready to join us, a worthwhile ally against Those That Devour._

 _We have judged that you are._

 _I speak now directly to the leaders of your planet. Surrender to us, and I promise you will be treated with honour and dignity, as was agreed long ago. Surrender, and we will fight together against the greatest enemy the stars have ever known. Renege on what you once promised, and we shall take it by force. You have spurned and rejected our gifts at every turn, every chance you had for our aid. As proof of our good intentions, our willingness to forgive you despite your futile efforts to harm us, and of the gifts you will gain through submission...we grant you this smallest piece of our power._

 _Let us be clear: there will be no more offerings. No more warnings. You have seven of your Earth days to lay down your arms. The remnants of your Bureau, the X-Com Project, must be disbanded immediately and its resources surrendered to us. We have great plans for it._

 _Our message is simple, New Ones. Join us. It is not a request_."

We all sat in stunned silence for a few moments, until Macabe spoke again. He looked a little dismayed about what he was about to say, and looking back, I can hardly blame him.

"There's more." He said. Major Foreman sighed.

"There's _always_ more…" Foreman trailed off in an exasperated tone.

"Since all the nations of the world saw this message, some have already responded. The French President Francois Hollande has announced that he intends to surrender unconditionally to alien forces." The Colonel said.

"Wow, France. Thanks for being a dick." Lagann said with some venom in his voice.

"Are there other responses?" I asked.

"There are. That was just the first one." Macabe looked around the room at us before continuing. The room was silent. The projector at the back of the room sprang to life again. The image of the Ethereal was replaced by a BBC news room. The woman behind the desk looked up from her papers to the camera.

" _Following the emergency summit convened by world leaders to discuss how to respond to the alien crisis, the United States, Russia, and China have publically declared that they will refuse the offer of surrender_ "Categorically, completely, and without hesitation." _remarked President Obama in a speech on returning home._ "I hope that by midnight tonight the world will be with us, for if not they will be most certainly be against us."

 _The new Kremlin chief, Yuri Z_ _hukov, hailed what he called_ "a historic partnership between East and West, the likes of which have not been seen in my lifetime. So long as the people of this planet can lay old grievances to rest and stand together, we will overcome any threat." _The charismatic young President was speaking only a few days into his term, following the recent impeachment of Vladimir Putin for treason._

 _In other news, a terrorist bombing in the United Kingdom is being strongly attributed to the work of alien sympathisers. Heavily armed alien troops were seen taking prisoners and herding them into transport ships in the aftermath of the blast in northern city of Leeds. Military strategists are divided as to this sudden change of tactics from the aliens._

 _Francois Hollande, who has indicated that France will surrender unconditionally to the aliens tonight, has expressed a fear of_ "shadowy forces with no democratic mandate" _which_ "seek to bleed dry the peoples of this earth for their own selfish advancement." _He has famously been one of the few world leaders to not only publically acknowledge the existence of the_ XCOM Project _, but to denounce them as terrorists. He has also offered an invitation to the leaders of the aliens,_ "whatsoever form they may take" _, to visit France following the surrender to discuss plans for the future. Following this, Israel become the sixth nation to formally withdraw its ambassador to the French nation in protest at their actions._

 _We don't yet know what most of the major nations plan to do before the expiration of the deadline tonight, but the uniting of three of our greatest nations against the alien threat must surely set a firm example. We'll have more on the developing crisis as we get it._ "

We all sat in silence for a moment or two before Macabe began speaking again. "As you can all see, things are not going well."

"Evidently." Foreman said with a grimace.

"The aliens have unfortunately taken affront to the alliance between the US, Russia and China and have launched attacks on each of them. Russia has announced to us that it doesn't want any help and that they can deal with it themselves. What that means, we don't know, but it's not our problem now. The UK also stated that they wanted help from us."

"What do they want?" I asked.

"Unknown. Regardless, that's not our mission. We're going to Beijing. We haven't had word from the Chinese which isn't good. The Americans are at least yelling a bit. It's when the country goes silent that we need to worry." The colonel looked around at us as he spoke.

"Wonderful." I muttered.

"Are there any questions?" He asked. There were none. "Right, let's go." We all stood up and moved off towards the armoury to pick up our weaponry and armour. I donned my carapace armour and picked up my heavy plasma and rocket launcher. The others were also preparing themselves for the mission. Major Foreman was wearing a set of Archangel Armour. It was a set of light armour with a built in jet pack, to enable the user to hover several feet in the air. A person wouldn't scale buildings in seconds, but they would be able to fly upwards a good few floors. He picked up a plasma sniper rifle which had several notched in the side. Clearly he was a good shot with this weapon. Colonel Macabe was wearing titan armour and carrying a plasma rifle. Unlike most support personnel, Macabe was more focused on the engineering side of being a support, instead of the medic. The other colonel, whose name I learned to be David Kessell, put on a piece of ghost armour. What the armour allowed the wearer to do was become completely invisible to the naked eye. From the reports I've heard it doesn't fool infrared technology or other similar devises, but if you needed to sneak past someone, it was perfect. The last member of the team however was the one who captured most of my attention as we prepared for the mission.

Sergeant Lagann, the MEC trooper, stood in the middle of a circular metal platform. From two holes in the ceiling, the front and back of a metal chassis, in the form of a chest and back piece descended towards the trooper. The chassis seemed to have what looked like a shoulder mounted grenade launcher. The two pieces enclosed around Lagann and a whirring could be heard as bolts were locked in place. A robotic arm, that wouldn't be out of place on an assembly line dropped from the ceiling and positioned itself on the right of Lagann. The arm then proceeded to unscrew various nuts and bolts on Lagann's shoulder. His arm then dropped away, carried by the ceiling arm, and into replace it came a larger arm. Almost twice the size. It positioned itself in line with Lagann and attached itself in a similar way to the chassis. The two arms then receded into the ceiling and another assembly arm came down. It positioned itself on the other side of the MEC trooper and the other arm was replaced almost as quickly as the first. Once the two arms we on a thick horizontal metal bar was lowered from the ceiling above Lagann's head. He hoisted himself up and hung with his legs swinging underneath. Two assembly arms dropped from holes in the ceiling on either side of him and positioned themselves at Lagann's waist. Then, like with the arms, the legs detached from the body and from the ceiling the much larger, heavy duty legs came down. They were impressive. They looked as though they'd not only be able to support the weight of the MEC suit, but enable it move around quite quickly. Once the battle suit legs were attached, Lagann let go of the bar and dropped to the floor. The thud was intense. The power emitted from the machine as Lagann rose slowly. He flexed his limbs testing them out. Once he was satisfied he moved over to the wall where a Rail-gun hung waiting. It was massive. It made my heavy plasma look like a pea shooter in comparison.

With all of us ready for combat, we moved out of the armoury towards the hanger bay where a Sky Ranger was there waiting for us. As we moved into the aircraft, I noticed another Sky Ranger being checked over and prepared for flight. I assumed that the other members of the XCOM project must be going to one of the other two location the Macabe mentioned. I took my seat, stored my weapon and prepared myself mentally for the mission ahead. I was surprised to see that we weren't alone though. We had been joined by a short man in a lab coat. What I learned on the flight was that he was our translator for the mission. He looked terrified. If he only he'd known.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Let's try and pretend this is a military mission rather than the world's worst day care."

\- Captain Conrad "Simba" Baltar

The flight itself was rather uneventful. Most of us sat in silence, mentally preparing ourselves for the combat ahead. Each of us thinking through scenarios as to what we were going to be up against. Dr Hal Emmerich was the exception. The man, who was to be going with us into combat, looked as though he'd never been out of his lab for field work. Ever. He'd had no combat experience and other than being fluent in Cantonese, was completely useless. To make matters worse he got motion sick on the flight. Twice, the team had to avoid flying pieces of vomit because the good Dr couldn't get to a sick bag in time. Needless to say, we weren't very happy by the time we got to China.

It didn't take long for us to reach Beijing, but the situation was worse than we had feared. As we flew over the city, the apparent destruction was difficult to comprehend. The Northern half of the city was caught in a raging fire, where bombs and explosions could still be seen going off, whereas the Southern half was relatively untouched by the fighting. The Chinese military base to the South looked as untouched as the lower part of the city. Colonel Macabe ordered the pilot towards one of the bases landing pads so we could find someone who could tell us what was going on.

The Sky Ranger landed and we left via the rear to find a trio of the Chinese military waiting for us. Once we were all out, they approached us. They were transfixed by Lagann and his MEC suit, but they didn't seem afraid. It was more a look of recognition. The leader of the group said something in Chinese. We all looked at Emmerich. It took him a moment to notice we were waiting before he began translating.

"He says 'greetings, you are from XCOM? Please come with us, the commander wants to speak with you right away'." The Dr translated. Colonel Macabe nodded and gestured for them to lead the way for us. We followed them from the landing pad through the base. We passed a number of Surface to Air Missile launchers and large hangers which I noticed stored very few aircraft inside. I worried that the reason they were so empty was because they had been shot down by the alien aircraft. The trio of soldiers eventually led us into a small command bunker where a lot of frantic work was being done. Men and women talked quickly into radio stations while others moved around the room with sheets of paper describing troop movements and losses. In the centre of the room was a table, on which was a large map of Beijing, it appeared. Hunched over it was an Old Chinese man. His rank on his shoulder showed that he was in charge of this base. His hair was greying. As we approached he looked up at us. His eyes looked as though they had lost all hope. When we were close enough not to have to shout over the radio operators and analysts Macabe introduced us.

"Hello, I'm Colonel Macabe and this is my team. We're from XCOM. We're here to help." He said. Dr Emmerich began translating, but the Chinese commander held up a hand.

"It is alright. I speak enough English." The Dr looked at his shoes, unsure of what to do.

"This is my team, Colonel Kessell, Major Foreman, Sergeant Lagann, Sergeant Cain and Dr Emmerich." The General looked around at us, a little confused.

"This is all you have brought?" He asked.

"It is." Macabe answered.

"We need an army, not a strike team."

"I assure you, these people are the best." Macabe tried to reassure. The Chinese general muttered something under his breath. The Dr knew better than to translate whatever it was.

"Fine. Come with me." The commander led us to the table with the map on it. We all looked at it. "The situation is not good. The alien forces have raised the northern part of the city in their first wave of bombing attacks. We scrambled fighters but many of them were shot down. Not only that, but the enemy then landed their ships, dropping troops which have begun advancing south towards our base." The General began indicated several places on the map that had been circled with a red marker. "We have set up defensive points, but they are being overwhelmed and it won't be long before they are taken. We need you to bolster the defences if we are to survive on the ground. We also need a way of shooting down the enemy bombers. We only have a few planes to spare, coupled with several SAM launchers, but it won't be enough."

"We'll handle that, I'll send word to XCOM to send fighters to help us as soon as possible."

"Thank you. My only hope is that they will be here soon enough." The tone in his voice suggested that the general wasn't expecting to survive this.

"Have you got any method of being able to stop these attacks?" Kessell asked.

"No. At least, not yet. Our scientists have been trying to crack the alien language."

"To what extent?" Macabe queried.

"The idea is to use their language to upload some sort of computer virus to make their aircraft obsolete."

"You mean like in Independence Day?" I asked. The general looked at me blankly.

"I have no idea what you mean." He said.

"How long till the virus ready? Macabe cut in.

"Hours, days, months? I don't know." The general answered.

"Where is the nearest defensive point?" Foreman asked.

"About five miles north of here." The general pointed to a location on the map. It was in a large built up area.

"We'll head off now then, unless there's anything we need to know." Macabe said.

"No. There isn't." We turned to leave out the door. "Oh there is one thing." We stopped and looked back. "The civilian population has become… a little unsettled by the recent bombardment. We've contained their anger for the moment, but just be on the lookout." The team exchanged glances. We all knew what the general meant when he said 'contained their anger'. Unfortunately there was nothing we could do about that, so we left without a word. We set off on foot in the direction of the defensive point that we were supposed to bolster. We passed through the main gates of the air base and moved forward through the city.

The area we passed through seemed to be largely untouched by the first wave. There were a few ruined buildings here and there, but the city looked untouched. The only hint really, that there had been an attack was the orange glow emitting from the Northern part of the city. As we moved through the town a thought struck me. There were no people. No one at all. The whole city seemed deserted. I looked around, but there wasn't any sign of life at all. No people. No animals. Nothing. At first we were going to take the Sky Ranger, but with no obvious place to land nearby, we decided to go out on foot. Unfortunately, that meant we were a lot slower than Macabe would have liked. We had been walking for forty minutes or so when we came across the first signs of fighting. It wasn't from alien weaponry however. As we moved through the streets we passed bodies of civilians laying crumpled in the roads and on the pavements. Upon closer inspection, it appeared as though they had been killed by conventional weaponry. I'd experienced harsh methods to quell unrest before, but this seemed more systematic. As we moved on, the buildings around us became more ruined. None were destroyed, but there was a lot more damage. We eventually arrived at the defensive positon we were meant to support, but there wasn't any sign of the Chinese military anywhere. That was when Foreman spoke up.

"We're being watched." He said calmly.

"Where from?" Macabe asked, following Foreman's eye line. The rest of raised our weapons ever so slightly, making them ready to use at a moment's notice.

"Rooftop. Building at the end of the road." We looked at the building. It was four floors high with a flat roof.

"I don't see anyone." Lagann said, straining his eyes.

"That's because you don't have any augmentations." Lagann looked at his with an 'are you kidding me?' sort of look. "Well, you know what I mean. Not on your eyes." Foreman said.

"What's he doing?" I asked, trying to make out mystery person.

"I'm not sure. He's just watching us through a pair of binoculars." Foreman said. His grip round his sniper rifle tightened.

"Chinese?" Macabe asked.

Foreman squinted his eyes, trying to make out as much detail as he could. "I can't tell."

"Thin Man?" Macabe asked.

"Again, I don't know." Foreman said with a sense of disappointment.

"Right, let's go and say hello." We moved off in the direction of the building. Each of us was checking corners and windows for signs of aliens. This seemed like the perfect spot for an ambush. As we got closer, I began to hear a familiar sound.

"Is that a helicopter?" I asked. The others stopped and listened.

"It is." Kessell said. Macabe spoke into his radio.

"General, do you have any aircraft in the vicinity?" He asked. The reply came. "Understood." He looked at us. "It's not his."

"Can we really trust someone who guns down his own people?" Kessell asked rhetorically.

"At this stage, we don't have a choice." Macabe retorted. The team moved forward towards the building. The sound of the helicopter was getting louder. We were about fifty metres away when the helicopter we had been hearing came right over our heads. It hovered above the building we had been approaching and began to land on top.

"Looks like the party's arrived." I said. We got to the entrance of the building and stepped inside, weapons raised. It was a mess. Someone had clearly been fighting in here. Like before, the weapons fire looked to be from conventional firearms. The sound of the helicopter was significantly muffled once inside. We had only gotten inside when Lagann pointed something out.

"I'm not going to fit in there." It hadn't occurred to us, but he was right. The door, and the rooms themselves were too small for Lagann to fit.

"Will you be okay to wait out there?" Macabe asked.

"I'd hope so." Lagann said sarcastically, taking a good look at the burning city around him

"I'll stay down here too." I volunteered.

Macabe turned to me with a look of confusion and surprise. "You sure?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'll take a look around this floor. I'll see if there's any clue as to what happened here, or more importantly, why."

"Very well. You three, follow me." Macabe led Emmerich, Kessell and Foreman up the stairs towards the roof. Lagann stayed outside and make sure nothing was going to attack us from behind. Since I was on my own downstairs, I thought it would be best to take a look around. I searched the few rooms there was on the ground floor. The building seemed to be some sort of apartment building. There were living quarters and a kitchen, but no bedrooms at all. As I moved through the rooms I came across a body lying face down in a pool of blood. I approached it, slowly. There was a gunshot wound to the back of the head, but considering the things that I've seen, I didn't want to take any chances. I prodded him with the barrel of my gun, but he didn't move. I slowly flipped him over. He was dead. That was obvious. If the gun shot hole in his back hadn't killed him, the one on his face certainly would have. I looked through his pockets to try and find some sort of identification, or anything important. I found what appeared to be a driving license but because it was in Chinese, I couldn't be sure. I left the body where it was and went to go find Lagann outside. That was when I noticed that he wasn't there. I know it's hard for a hulking mass of destruction to disappear, but he did just that. Then I looked to my left. He was partly obstructed behind a piece of debris about one hundred metres to the left of the building. I called him over the radio.

"Lagann, what are you doing?" I asked. He jumped half a metre in the air in surprise. I guess, even with enough armour to rival a tank, a little jump scare can still get to you.

After he regained his composure, he replied into his radio " _I saw something_."

"What?" I asked, looking over at the debris he was searching through.

"I don't know. It looked like a person." This made me feel a little edgy. I moved back into the doorway. If there was someone watching us still, I wanted to be in some cover in case they started shooting. You might call it paranoia, but paranoia has saved my life before.

"Well get back here then, if there's nothing over there."

"Yeah… I guess it was nothing." Lagann started to move back, just as the others came round the corner from upstairs.

I looked at Macabe. "Anything?" I asked.

"Yeah it was a thin man. But by the time we had gotten to the roof, it had jumped to a different roof top and was running away." Macabe gave off a quick flash of frustration, but it was gone, almost as soon as it had come.

"And the helicopter?" I inquired.

"Funny thing that. That was also gone. But it was actually chasing the thin man. Shooting at it, even." I looked at Macabe confused.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah I don't understand it either." He said. Lagann came round the corner moments later. "Where have you been?" Macabe asked, only just realising Lagann had been gone. That was odd on two accounts. Firstly, that Macabe was able to miss a giant robotic man not being round, but also because he was the one leading the mission. It was a little off-putting to see him miss that.

"I thought I saw someone watching me. It turned out to be nothing." Lagann explained.

"This day is just getting weirder and weirder." Macabe said.

"Guys we've got contacts." Kessell said, aiming his weapon through the doorway. We all turned to face down the road we had come up. There were three sectoids coming up the street. At first they hadn't noticed us but as they got a little closer they saw us and ran down one of the alley ways.

"Shit. Come on. We can't let them get away." We left the building and followed the aliens down the alley. As we tracked them through the streets I kept looking up at the sky. How long had it been since the first bombardment? The aliens couldn't be waiting much longer, could they? We followed the trail of the sectoids for twenty minutes through streets and buildings till we came across a residential area. The houses round here were more ruined then before. This must have been part of the area that was bombarded. Some of the houses still stood, but many were in ruins. The fire hadn't reached this area yet, however. We turned a corner and stopped. One of the sectoids had been killed. Its body shot with weapons fore. From what, it was hard to tell. From this point on, we moved a lot slower and more cautiously. Someone else was obviously around. Leading away from the body was a blood trail. The blood was obviously not human, so we followed it. Eventually, it led us to a house that was still standing. Many of the surrounding buildings had been destroyed but the walls on the ground floor still remained in places.

The door was open. We stacked up on either side of the building. Macabe counted down from three and we went inside, weapons raised. On the floor was a sectoid body, sprawled on the floor of what appeared to be a living room. We began searching the house for the last alien. I went upstairs. When I reached the top, I noticed one of the rooms had its door slightly off its hinges. I hedged a bet that that was where there alien was. I slowly approached and kicked open the door. There was a something inside, but it wasn't an alien. There was a human dead body slumped against the wall. I called the others up. Macabe was the first to arrive.

"Any sign of the alien?" He asked. I shook my head. "Damn. Who's this?"

"No idea."

"Well whatever it was, it was damn powerful. Look, the blast went right through the wall behind him." I looked and saw that there was a fist sized hole in the wall above where the body was slumped. That did not fill me with hope.

"Hey, I think I've found his computer." Kessell shouted from the next room. Macabe and I went in to find a desktop monitor and hard drive.

"Anything worth noting down?" I asked.

Macabe scanned the top of the desk. "Doesn't look like it." Macabe said.

"I wouldn't say that." Kessell said, holding up a floppy disk.

"Where did that it come from?" I asked. "There's no slot for it." The other looked around to find some hardware to insert it, but couldn't.

"This is strange." Macabe took the disk and put it in his webbing beneath his armour. "Let's get going. We can't linger here for too long." We all went downstairs, apart from Lagann and Emmerich who were already waiting for us, seeing as Lagann couldn't easily get up the stairs and Emmerich wasn't the best sort of person to be around when blood and bodies were involved. He seemed a little nauseous.

"Find anything?" Lagann asked as he watched us come down.

"Just a floppy disk and a dead guy." I said, coming off the stairs.

"Right, come on. We need to get moving." Macabe said.

Macabe was almost out of the door when Foreman called out. "Wait."

"What?" Kessell asked, turning around to face the sniper.

"I don't know about you guys, but that looks like a trail of blood coming out of that door." All of us looked round to see the door the major was indicating. Sure enough there was a trail of dried blood leading to the door way. Macabe signalled for us to move either side of the door. He gave the signal and we opened the door. What we saw, was not what we were expecting. Inside was a dark stairwell made of stone that went down into the gloom.

"We're going in." Macabe said without hesitation. "Lagann, you're too big. You stay up here in case trouble arrives."

"Maybe I should stay here too. That place looks a little... well…" Emmerich trailed off.

"No, you're coming with us. Kessell, you're on point." With much reluctance, the team and the scientist descended down the stairs. It took longer than anyone had expected to reach the bottom. We much have travelled about eight flights of stairs by the time we got to the end. At the bottom was a workshop. It looked old, but well used. There were tools and workbenches lining the walls, a table in the middle with a ceiling lamp shining down. But that all was insignificant to the main attraction in the room. On the far side of the square workshop was a Sectopod pinned against the wall with chains. Had read up about them during one of my little looks through the XCOM archives. The description given was that they were _hulking, mechanical creatures that resemble large mechanized tanks. The alien army utilizes them as heavy long-range fire support to defend key areas, base structures, and larger UFO's. Their four legs enable the sectopod to traverse most terrain with ease, whilst providing a soldier base to fire from._ All the description in the world didn't compare to the presence of one however. It towered over the average man with ease. We approached, weapons raised. Kessell was closest to it, so he noticed the alteration first.

"It's got a cockpit." He said.

"What?" Foreman asked, not quite sure if he had misheard. The team approached, Emmerich rather reluctantly.

"How do you know it's a cockpit?" I asked as I strained to look inside.

"There's a guy in it. Well half a guy anyway." Kessell said. I immediately stopped trying to look.

"Half a guy?" Macabe asked peering inside.

"Yeah, the legs are there, not much else though." That was all that was needed. Emmerich threw up there and then. Macabe shook his head.

"You okay?" Kessell asked.

"Yeah, just not a fan of-…" He threw up again.

"Charming." I muttered sarcastically. "Are they not meant to have cockpits?" I asked, inspecting the rest of the room.

"No. They're meant to be completely mechanised. This genius, however, thought it would be a good idea to try and change that." Kessell said, looking around at the rest of the workshop.

"Got to give him credit." Macabe said as he examined the alien tank.

"How so?" I asked.

"Well… I've never tried to do it myself… but apart from the legs altercation, he looked as though he was almost there. He's got the seat, the controls, everything."

"How'd it get here?" Emmerich asked. We all stopped and looked round at him. He raised a good point. There was no way that this walking tank made it down the stairs that we had just used. We all began scanning the room for an answer. There was nothing.

"Did they take it apart and bring it down piece by piece?" I asked.

"Unlikely. This thing was moved in bulk and then the modifications were made." Macabe said.

"Well then how did it get here?" Foreman asked.

"A secret doorway." I said. The other looked at me with mild amusement.

"This isn't some sort secret dungeon, Cain." Foreman said.

"No, but we are in a world where aliens and god-ships are attacking us." I pointed out. "Besides, does anyone have any better explanations?" They didn't.

"Right, let's look for a secret doorway, people." The team spread out, looking at all the tools, the work benches and everything in between. Emmerich was too preoccupied not throwing up to look. He went over to one of the wall to lean against it. He put his hand out against the wall and fell right through it. The wall began to shimmer and evaporated to reveal a long dark, metallic corridor. It had a striking resemblance to the corridor on the alien ship, we left at the bottom of the ocean. The corridor's material was different, however, it looked more human in design. I wasn't sure at the time if that made me feel better or worse. We all walked over towards the dark corridor.

"Are you okay?" Kessell asked Emmerich as he helped him up.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." He turned around to look down the corridor for the first time. It stared menacingly back at him. "We're not going down there? Are we?"

"We are." Macabe said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Okay, let me put it this way. _I'm_ not going down there. I'll do a lot of things, but go down that corridor isn't one of them."

"I'll stay with him, if you like." I volunteered.

"No. If we get into a fire fight, I want your fire power close at hand. Foreman, you'll stay here with Emmerich. Also relay the situation to Lagann. We should be back soon. Everyone else, let's go." Reluctantly, we started off down the dark, metallic corridor. It was long. Longer than a corridor should have been. The time it must have taken to build this corridor, without the government knowing, must have been years and years. That said, who's to say that the Chinese government didn't know? I'm fairly certain these thoughts were going through Macabe's mind too.

Eventually we reached the end of the corridor, some fifteen minutes later. At the end of the corridor was a room, made out of the same material as the corridor. It was a small, well lit room, but the contents of it pressed far more issues than any claustrophobia that we might have been feeling. Lining the sides of the room were green pods. They weren't empty either. Inside the pods were humans. They had wires and sensors coming out of them, monitoring all sorts of information. The green backlight of the pods gave away an eerie presence of the six machines. At the far end of the room, was an old computer.

"I think I found where your floppy disk goes." I said, pointing at the other end of the room.

"Kessell, see if you can't get it running." Macabe ordered. Kessell was just about to move off when we got a call from Foreman over the radio.

" _Guys, you've got to come back now. The second wave has started._ "

"Oh wonderful." I said in an exasperated tone.

"Can we take any of it?" Macabe asked. Kessell shook his head.

"It's too big and too heavy." I pointed out.

Macabe swore. "Well here's hoping that there's enough on this disk then. Come on." We hurried back down the corridor. Seeing as we were running, we got back in less than half the time it took us to go down. The workshop was empty. We continued up the stairs to find Lagann inside the building taking cover behind a wall. On the far side of him was Emmerich. He was huddled behind a chair.

"Where's Foreman?" Kessell asked Lagann.

"He's upstairs." Lagann answered as he scanned the area with his weapon with robot-like precision.

"Foreman, we're leaving. Now!" Macabe shouted up. The major came down a moment later. "Right, let's start heading back to the base, see where we're needed. I've got some question I'd like to ask our General." Macabe gave the signal and we moved off.

Outside it was chaos. The sky was filled with UFO's circling overhead, bombing indiscriminately. An explosions a few hundred metres away. Screaming could be heard from every direction. Far away an air raid siren was sounding. It was a war zone. We moved off in a synchronised motion. All members of the team scanning for alien movement. The team moved out onto the main high street when we saw a group of sectoids surrounding what looked to be an alien version of the MEC suit about one hundred metres away. Macabe help up a hand and we all stopped dead. Macabe signalled for Kessell to stealth up and move closer, so that his shotgun would be at a more effective range. While he did that, I prepared my rocket to fire at the mectoid in the centre of the group. Once Kessell was in position, the rest of the team lined up their shots to take out the survivors of the blast. I aimed my rocket launcher at the big one and fired.

It took less than a second for the rocket to travel to the target. The mectoid and the six surrounding sectoids didn't even flinch as the rocket slammed into its target. The fireball engulfed all of the seven targets. When the fiery debris had cleared, the damage could be seen. The mectoid was lying on its back, a hole punched right through its chest cavity. Two of the small sectoids had been out right incinerated by the blast. Another two had been blown apart. Alien limbs littering the ground. The final two had survived, but they were disorientated by the shockwave of the explosion. The rest of the team opened fire. The surviving aliens didn't last long. It was over in a moment. We took cover and reloaded our weapons before continuing. It was at that point when I really noticed what was going on in the sky. The UFO's were attacking in waves as they advanced the bombardment ever south, towards the military base. I looked at one particular UFO. It was small but fast as it avoided anti-aircraft fire. It circled round and began moving straight towards our position.

"Oh bloody Hell…" I said to myself. The other looked round at me, then followed my eye line. We watched as the UFO quickly advanced on us. A moment later and it would be in range of us to drop another bomb. There was a massive explosion. The UFO burst apart in fireball. The wreckage trailing off and falling away to Earth. A second later an XCOM interceptor flew past, escorted by another two of its kind.

"Looks like our air support is here." Foreman said with a smile.

"That it does." Macabe agreed. He spoke into his radio. "Macabe to air support, fire at will. Take as many as you can, but don't take unnecessary risks."

" _Understood._ " Came the reply. We carried on moving. The team crept down streets and alleys to reduce the chances of being caught off guard by the aliens. I, like the others, constantly scanned the sky, almost as much as the ground, looking for a hint as to how the air battle was going. That was when we noticed a large dark smudge in the sky. It was several miles away, but the sheer size of it was overwhelming.

"Is that what I think it is?" Lagann asked, mouth agape as he stared.

"I think so." Foreman said with the sound of dread in his voice.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to work out what it was I was seeing it seemed familiar, but where…

"That, Cain, is the Arachnus. It's one of those Old One ships." My heart stopped for a moment.

"There's more than one?" I asked worriedly. The memory of the first one I had come across still fresh in my mind. The corridors, the minions, the death.

"Apparently so." I looked up at it. It must have been three kilometres high, at least. There were a writhing mass of, what looked like, tentacles underneath. The air suddenly ionised. It fired. The tips of the tentacles let loose volley upon volley of laser fire upon the Northern part of the city. And it was moving south.

"How did you beat it last time?" I asked as I looked to each of the team members for some sort of reassurance.

"We didn't." Lagann said. "We ran." I began to laugh hysterically. Macabe slapped me round the head. I snapped out of it.

"So what do we do now?" Emmerich asked.

"We continue with the mission, hopefully the General will have a plan to deal with it." There was no more to be said. We continued walking down the street, away from the Arachnus and towards the base. We passed burning houses and cars in the street. Bodies littered the ground in certain places. We were all on edge. Kessell turned a corner, then jumped back round

"What's up?" Foreman asked.

"Aliens. I count a mectoid and about four sectoids surrounding it." Kessell said as he checked his weapon. Macabe turned to me.

"A mectoid?" I asked.

"It's like Lagann, only it looks alien."

"Well shit." I said pessimistically. Thought only we had suits like that. To find out the alien ha them, well, I felt cheated.

"Time to shine, Cain. Fire that rocket of yours straight at the mectoid. Hopefully the blast will kill, or at least stun, the others. Everyone else, prepare to fire at whatever survives the blast." We all moved into a position along the wall. I was first followed by Kessell, Macabe, Lagann, Joel and at the back, Emmerich.

I ran. As quick as I could, I ran out of the cover, behind the corner. The aliens seemed to notice me, because they began to turn, but it was too late for them. I brought up my rocket launcher to bare and opened fire. The missile struck the mectoid in the chest. The fireball from the explosion ripped outwards killing two of the sectoids who were standing closest. As I recovered from the recoil, the others all came round the corner and fired upon the two remaining aliens, who were stunned by my blast. The skirmish was over as quickly as it began.

"We've got to keep moving." Foreman urged us.

"Agreed. Let's keep going." Macabe said. We all headed off. I prayed that we weren't going to have to deal with anything too dangerous, seeing as I was now out of rockets. We continued down the streets, towards the Chinese base. The Arachnus was perilously close to us. As we moved I carried on watching the sky. The air battle seemed to be even, but in the war of attrition, the aliens would win. We jogged for about five minutes through alleys and down streets before we came upon our next sighting of aliens. Fortunately, they were already dead. All around us lay the bodies of mutons, sectoids and a few robotic looking disks. I stared at the mutons. Their hulking mass was impressive, even if they were no longer alive. Macabe was about to inspect the corpses when Foreman called out.

"Contact. Two sectopods." We all turned up the street. The two alien machines were advancing towards us. One of them stopped.

"INSIDE. NOW." Macabe called. We all rushed into the building to the left of us. The windows and doors had been blown in by the bombardment. Kessell and I dived in through the window while the other moved in through the open door. "Foreman, Kessell, upstairs." The two ran upstairs. The rest of us hid behind the cover of the walls. Macabe strained to hear over the air engagement.

"Why did we rush inside?" Emmerich whispered to no-one in particular. He was answered almost immediately. A high pitched whistle could be heard, getting louder. Then two. Then three. Four. Five. The area we were standing in seconds ago exploded in shrapnel and fire as artillery from the sectopod landed. Metal shards ripped through the openings of the house and hot concussive blasts shook the ground beneath us. The bombardment stopped quickly and the team were given a moment's reprieve. Then the sectopod came into view. _Whine, thump. Whine, thump._ It travelled down the street till it stopped in front of the house. It turned. But not towards us. It turned towards the other side of the street. The fusion lance on the front of the walker charged up. It fired. Ionising the air around it. The house on the other side of the street turned into rubble and ash in an instant. We all held our breath. The sectopod then turned to face our house.

"Oh shit." Macabe said. Lagann charged the sectopod. I hadn't even noticed he was moving till he had punched the walker twice, using his kinetic strike module. He was effectively slamming a thick chunk of metal under the assistance of mini rockets into the side of the chassis of the sectopod. The rest of us all aimed our weapons, but none of us could get a clear shot at the tank without the risk of hitting Lagann. Lagann then changed his tactics and instead of punching the walker, he was gripping it, trying to keep it from moving too much, or shaking it off. With the two of them no longer moving anywhere near the amount they were before, we opened fire. Plasma rounds and Kessell's alloy cannon tore through the hull of the sectopod, but it just wouldn't die. With a huge force, the sectopod lifted Lagann up and charge through the front wall of the house we were in. Well that got us moving. The three of us that were downstairs dived back out through the windows, trying to avoid being hit by the sectopod as it thrashed around. Once I was outside I had noticed that Lagann had let go and was lying on the ground. There were puncture marks on the suit where the sectopods limbs had attacked him, but he looked fine. I turned back to see the dying moments of the sectopod. The walker was so big it nearly encompassed the whole ground floor. It writhed for a moment, then fell to the floor. Motionless.

"Brace." Macabe said as he covered his head. The sectopod exploded moments later. Fortunately, the explosion was only small, so it was only the sectopod that was truly damaged. "Persistent little buggers. Even in death, they'll still take a pot shot or two."

With the threat gone, we all made our way into the street. Foreman scanned the street for any sign of the second sectopod, but there was none.

"Where do you think it went?" Emmerich asked nervously.

"Who knows?" Kessell said, looking around.

"Lagann, where the Hell did that come from?" Macabe asked. Lagann didn't say anything, he just shrugged and looked at his suit's fist. Macabe looked as though he was going to wait, but the sight of the lumbering behemoth that was the Arachnus changed his mind. "Let's keep moving. We need to get back as quick as we can."

"You really think the Chinese will have a plan?" I asked.

"I sure as Hell hope so." Macabe said as he walked away towards the South. We followed behind him. The air battle continued. We moved cautiously, but quickly through the rubble. Now and again one of us would slip and pray that we didn't alert any nearby aliens to our presence. We turned down a street to see a peculiar sight. There were two sectopods in the middle of the road. However, for some reason, they were fighting each other. One of them seemed to have a blue glow around the main body where all the circuitry was. Foreman was about to take a shot when Emmerich moved him out of the way.

"What are you doing?" Foreman asked.

"Look." Emmerich said, watching the two sectopods fight it out.

"What?" I asked.

"One of them is using tactics?" Emmerich pointed out. I began to look at the two more carefully.

"What do you mean tactics?" Kessell said.

"He's right." Macabe agreed. "Look the one with the blue glow is using cover to avoid the fusion lance." We watched in silence as the two sectopods fought. The _smart_ one was clearly going to win. It was just a matter of time. It was almost balletic the way that the two danced around, trying to avoid each other's attacks

"What do we do?" I asked.

"We wait. Let's see what happens." Emmerich said, fascinated. His fear from earlier replaced by intrigue.

"You can't be serious." Foreman argued.

"We need to find out what's going on here." Macabe said. "We stay." As the fight continued the blue sectopod gave out more and more damage, while its counterpart barely seemed to scratch his opponent. Eventually, the inevitable happened and the second sectopod was defeated. The team slowly approached the sectopod with the blue glow from behind.

"Disabling-shot ready." Foreman said. We were about ten feet away from the back of the sectopod when the sectopod started moving backwards as if startled. If Macabe and I hadn't jumped out of the way, we would have been trampled. Foreman fired his disabling-shot. Sparks flew off the machine as the power died down from it. Macabe and I moved round to the front of the sectopod. Our weapons trained on it the whole time. We stood in front of the walker. A hissing sound could be heard and the hatch on the front of the sectopod opened up. I turned to Macabe.

"I thought these things didn't open?"

"They don't he replied." We aimed our weapons. A pair of hands shot out of the innards of the sectopod.

"Don't shoot." The voice begged. From the voice, it was a man with a thick Chinese accent. His head popped out. The man was Chinese and looked to be in his late thirties. He climbed out of his disabled walker and stood before the team. He was wearing combat overalls.

"Who are you?" Macabe asked sternly. The man stood u tall, thrusting his chest out, like a soldier who had been called to attention.

"I am Colonel Kai Leng. Who are you?" The man asked.

"I am Colonel Macabe. This is my team." Macabe said, gesturing to the group of people behind him. None of us moved, we all just looked at the man before us.

"I never knew the sectopods were piloted." Kessell cut in.

"They're not. This was built for me." Leng said quickly. He looked around at the burning city. The crimson sky dances as the flames engulfed the buildings.

"By who?" Macabe asked sceptically.

"Friends." The Colonel said dismissively.

The team all looked very closely at the man now. There was something odd about him, but we couldn't quite tell what. "Just friends?" Foreman asked suspiciously.

"Yes." He answered. The colonel regarded Major Foreman for a moment before Macabe caught his attention again.

"Are you alone?" Macabe asked.

"No. My team is here with me. They are within the city." Leng said, turning back to the colonel.

"What are you doing here?" Foreman asked.

"The same thing you are. Trying to stop the alien attack." He said with an expression that he was surprised he was asked such a stupid question.

"And what were you planning on doing about that?" I said, pointing to the Arachnus behind me. Leng shrugged.

"We haven't got that far yet." He said again in a dismissive tone.

"Well I'm pleased to see that you've planned ahead." I said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Cain, shut up." Macabe said sternly. "Where are you from? What organisation do you work for?"

"I am with EXALT." The hairs on my neck stood up. EXALT. That was the name on the side of the lorry which we had ambushed. I knew I had heard the name before. My trigger finger twitched. I couldn't help but think something was wrong here.

"Well we could use your help." Macabe said.

"I'll do what I can, but your shot seems to have disabled my sectopod." The looked at the team sniper for a moment. Foreman just shrugged as if he didn't care.

"Can you get it working?" Kessell asked.

"Not quickly." Leng said, taking a look at his damaged vehicle.

"Well you're going to have to be quick. We've got enemies incoming." I said. Whilst watching the air battle I noticed three large metallic disks rise over the top of one of the buildings about fifty metres down the street.

"Cyberdisks!" Lagann shouted.

"Everyone spread out." Macabe ordered, but we were already moving before he had finished. I ran behind a nearby car and set up my heavy plasma. I extended the bipod and opened fire. I wasn't trying to hit anything in particular, my aim was to supress the aliens until the others could make killing shots. The EXALT leader was hiding behind a nearby wall, next to Macabe. He had drawn a pistol out of a holster and was taking shots at one of the disks. Lagann opened up with his mini-gun and blew up one of the disks. Major Foreman's plasma sniper fired and another disk went down. Only one remained. That's when we all heard it. I loud, guttural roar flooded from one of the buildings. Colonel Kessell de-cloaked next to a wall, near to the last cyberdisk. He fired. His Alloy cannon missed by millimetres. I took aim and fired. The plasma rounds from my heavy plasma caught the disk on the left hand side. It spun round before plummeting to the Earth. We all breathed a quick sigh of relief.

Then the wall behind Kessell exploded. The concussive shock sent him flying outwards into the middle of the street. We all looked to see what had done that. Lagann rushed forward to close the distance on Kessell as he tried to regain his senses. Kessell looked back through the hole that had been caused and called out.

"Oh fuck me. Berserkers! Six!" Ye yelled. I turned my weapon to the hole that had been made. I could just make out the big brutish shapes of mutons. Their red armour stood out against the brick wall. I opened fire. I knew however that my weapon wouldn't be able to take down all six of them, so instead of aim at their bodies, I aimed at their legs. As they came through the hole, my shots tripped them up and they fell onto the floor. This gave Lagann enough time to get between them and Kessell. The first two went down, and the fire power from Macabe and Foreman finished them off. However the third made it past our fire and charged Lagann. He met it, mid charge and their fists collided. The berserker recoiled in pain as it hand was crushed by Lagann's kinetic strike. The two then fought viciously, each trying to grapple the other.

"I've called my team. They're on their way." Leng shouted over the combat.

"How long?" Macabe asked as he reloaded his weapon.

"Not long at all." Leng said looking up at the sky. I just managed to tear my eyes away from the punch up to see a helicopter come over the top of the building and began to land on one of the apartment buildings opposite the hole that had been created by the mutons. Leng got up and ran towards the building. He got inside. Macabe and I exchanged glances. That seemed odd. Moments later we heard shots fired from inside the building.

"Foreman, use your archangel armour and get to the roof. Kessell you go in from the bottom. Move it people." The two of them ran. Lagann was still fighting when I noticed something odd about the three berserkers that were still inside the building. They were carrying heavy plasma rifle. Berserkers didn't carry ranged weapons, though. Then it hit me.

"They're not berserkers! They're heavy mutons!" I cried out. Kessell just made it do the doorway when they hosed the front of the building. Debris littered the ground. One of the plasma rounds flew into the open window and there was an audible thump. I aimed my weapon and started firing at the heavy mutons. Macabe joined me. The heavy mutons can take one hell of a beating and I looked for anything to give me an advantage. That was when I saw a support beam for the building they were in. I changed my position and fired at it. The wooden beam disintegrated. At first nothing happened. The mutons looked up for a moment. Just long enough to realise that the building was coming down. Four floors of stone and wood descended on top of the three. Dust flooded the street and for a moment we couldn't see more than three feet in front of us. As the debris settled we began to make out shapes. Two hulking silhouettes became clearer. Only one was standing. Lagann and the berserker had decided on a victor. Macabe and I raised our weapons. But it wasn't needed. Lagann stood over the bloodied corpse of the berserker. He looked dazed.

"I'm going to check on the others." Macabe said as he rushed inside. Emmerich and I walked over to Lagann. He was breathing heavily. His armour was battered. But the parts of him that were still made of flesh looked alright.

"Lagann? Are you okay?" I asked. He didn't answer. He just stood there. "So… punching, eh?" Lagann didn't respond.

" _Cain, what's happening with Lagann?_ " Macabe called over the radio.

"Not a lot. He looks a little dazed." I said, taking a look at Lagann's expressionless face.

" _Wonderful._ " He said in an exasperated tone. " _Hold on_."

"Well we're not going anywhere." I said. I looked around. The air battle seemed to have swung in our favour, from what I could see. There were many more of our fighters in the air, compared to the aliens. Our fire storm must have been the deciding factor in the battle.

" _Cain. Here's the situation. Kessell's been hit. Leng has offered to take him and Lagann_." Macabe called over the radio. I turned back to Lagann, but he hadn't moved an inch.

"I'm not sure that this is a good idea. I mean they _are_ EXALT." I said with real concern.

" _We don't have much of a choice, Cain_." Macabe said with what sounded like disappointment. He mustn't have been very happy about the situation either.

"Wait, what about the rest of us?" I asked.

" _There isn't enough room on the helicopter._ " Macabe said concerned.

"Oh _wonderful_. So we're walking?" I asked.

" _Yup_."

"Fantastic." I said rather sarcastically.

" _Leng's team is going to throw down a few cables. I need you to attach them to Lagann._ " I looked up at the building that Macabe and the others had ran into.

"Will do." I replied. Moments later, the wires dropped down. They were made of a thick metal. I hooked them under Lagann's arms and around his waist. If he did object to this idea, he didn't voice it. Once the cables were in place I signalled to the EXALT member looking down from the roof. He acknowledged and left the edge of the roof. I heard the sound of the helicopter blades winding up. The helicopter rose up off the roof and hovered about one hundred feet above Lagann. Once in positon, the helicopter then rose us, lifting Lagann of the ground. Within moments the helicopter had flown up with Lagann and had disappeared over the roofs of the buildings and out of sight. Macabe came down with Foreman out of the apartment building.

"So what now?" Foreman asked.

"Now? Now we continue onto the base." Macabe said looking at the three of us. "I mean we've still got a battle to win."

"Lucky us." I muttered to myself. We set off towards the base. The three of us passed several deserted Chinese outposts that had been overrun by the aliens. We moved quicker. The air battle was going well, but the ground battle was doing the exact opposite. Eventually we came up to the gates of the military base. Things were not going well. The entire compound was being attacked on the northern face. The guard houses were holding their own, but the constant wave of mutons were putting a lot of strain on them. Fortunately, the mutons hadn't noticed the three of us as we hid in the ruins of a destroyed house behind the muton line.

"Right, we need to help these guys out." Macabe said, peering over the top of a piece of recently collapsed rubble.

"What do you have in mind?" Foreman asked as he peered down his scope.

"Cain, you lay down suppressive fire. Joel and I will take out as many as we can. I'll contact the guard towers to let them know to set up a crossfire." Macabe grabbed his radio and selected the frequency to talk to the towers. "Guard towers at the northern gate, this is Colonel Macabe. My team are behind the muton lines. When we begin the attack we need you to lay down suppressive fire." There was a moment's silence, then the reply came. It was a man speaking Chinese.

"Oh perfect." Foreman said, rolling his eyes.

"Colonel, if I may." Emmerich sad, holding out his hand for the radio. Macabe passed him the radio. He spoke quickly into it. The man replied again. "They're ready." He told us.

"Cain, in your own time." Macabe said as he reloaded his weapon. I set up the bipod on my weapon and aimed at the largest group of mutons. There were seven of them in total. A group of three and two sets of two. They were firing at the guard towers. They didn't even notice that they were being attacked from behind until two of them were already dead. With the combined fire power of our team and the two guard towers we made short work of the seven mutons. The mutons didn't know which way to look to avoid the incoming fire. Foreman's sniper rifle scored a direct hit between the eyes of a muton which was foolish enough to poke his head up above the cover it was hiding behind. Macabe managed to take out the cover that one muton was hiding behind, which gave me the opportunity to hose him down with heavy plasma fire. The fight was over in less than two minutes. The seven mutons lay dead. The four of us broke cover and ran for the gates of the military base. Emmerich had the sense to warn the towers that we were coming out of cover and to hold fire. We made it to the base and ran as quickly as we could to the command centre where we hoped to find the Chinese general. He was in his command bunker shouting orders at his subordinates. He looked up and saw us as we entered.

"What's happening?" Macabe asked, holstering his weapon around his chest.

"We're screwed." The general said frustrated. He looked over to his communication officers and swore under his breath.

"Yeah, I know that. I mean details." Macabe said hurriedly. The surviving members of the team watch the two commanders closely. Even some of the radio operators were paying attention.

"Well our defences are holding off the aliens, but we've got no way of stopping that massive ship." The general said irritated.

"What _do_ you have?" Foreman asked.

The general turned to him. "We've got a few SAM launchers and a few outdated fighters, but nothing that will even put a dent into that thing."

"How is the virus coming along?" I asked.

"Slowly." The general muttered "Painfully slowly..."He trailed off and shook his head. This probably wasn't how he had imagined his career ending.

"Will it be ready soon?" Emmerich asked.

"We don't know." The general said.

"We might be able to buy you some time." Macabe said. The general turned around to face him.

The general looked at Macabe with suspicion. "How?"

"We have a fighter. It's unlike any other fighter. It's stronger, faster and packs one hell of a punch." Macabe said with pride.

"Will it work?" The general asked as he looked through the incoming reports from the perimeter defences.

"It has to." Macabe said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Very well." He said looking up from the reports. "Do what you can." The general eyed us all before turning back to his subordinates and yelling orders. The three members of the team and Emmerich left the command room and stood out in the open air. We were far enough away from the perimeter to not have to worry about stray fire, but the sight of the Arachnus getting closer made me want to run for cover. It didn't take us long to find the firestorm in the air battle. The aircraft's fusion lance gave off an unmistakeable yellow beam. It had scored another kill when Macabe found the radio channel that the pilot was using.

"Macabe to firestorm, do you copy?"

A brief moment later, the firestorm replied. " _Firestorm to Macabe, I read you._ "

"We need you to break off and attack the Arachnus. Try and buy us time." Macabe ordered into his radio. The team waited for a response. We all knew it was probably a death sentence, as did the pilot.

" _Understood_. _Engaging Arachnus._ " The pilot replied. I watched the eyes of the team drop to the floor. I said a silent prayer, then we all turned to the lumbering behemoth that was the floating Arachnus. At first nothing seemed to happen as the firestorm was getting into position. Then the first beams of light shot out of the firestorm. They impacted upon the side of the ship, but didn't seem to be slowing it down. Then the Arachnus started firing back.

The smaller lasers that were levelling the city turned upwards and began tracking the firestorm. Then it fired. The small lasers scythed a wave of energy through the air as they followed the evasive firestorm.

"Oh crap…" Foreman said worriedly.

" _Shit. I'm under heavy fire!_ " The pilot said into the radio. " _I'm not sure I can hang on much longer._ " The firestorm darted in all directions trying avoid the lasers, but they seemed to be getting closer with each pass.

Macabe grabbed his radio and spoke into it, hurriedly. "Pilot, you listen to me. You need to keep moving. You _can_ do this." Then something happened, which was rather more unsettling. The Arachnus stopped firing at the firestorm. The pilot spoke into the radio.

" _It is alright Macabe. I know what needs to be done_." The pilot said in a cool, controlled manner. Macabe and Foreman both looked at each other. Eyes wide.

"Oh fuck!" Foreman said as he looked around trying to locate the firestorm.

"What?" Emmerich asked, clearly unnerved by the way the other two member of the team were reacting.

"He's being mind-controlled." Macabe said as he put his fist under his chin in a thoughtful manner.

"How can you tell?" I asked, looking at the other two members.

"Whenever someone becomes very calm, they're likely being mind-controlled." Foreman said. "I found him." We all turned to look, but none of us could see him yet.

"How far is he out?" I asked.

"Four minutes." Foreman said in a lifeless tone. It seemed like he'd given up or something.

"Well we could shoot the firestorm down? Right?" Emmerich asked.

"And then what?" Foreman asked calmly. "We've still got to deal with the Arachnus."

I looked around the base. There wasn't anything that could really contend with a firestorm _and_ an Arachnus. Then I spotted the Sky Ranger. "Hey guys, maybe we could use the Sky Ranger."

"How?" Emmerich asked a little panicked.

"He's right." Foreman joined in. "That thing can't out fly a firestorm. That's a death sentence."

"You're right." Macabe said finally. "But _you_ can out-shoot it." We all stopped for a moment and turned to Macabe. He had the look of a man who was desperate, but seemed to have had a Eureka moment. "Foreman and I go in the Sky Ranger. We fly low to avoid the air combat and get between the firestorm and the Arachnus. When the firestorm has changed direction to take out the new threat, us, Foreman shoots the pilot. The momentum will hopefully send the firestorm into the side of the Arachnus. It'll blow up, hopefully damaging the Arachnus and dealing with the firestorm threat." We all stood in silence for a moment. It was Foreman who spoke up first.

"So the best plan we've come up with is me dangling out the back of our Sky Ranger while it's flying and shooting the pilot of the firestorm?"

"Yes." Macabe said with certainty.

"We're all going to die." I muttered to myself, low enough not to be heard.

"Very well. Let's do this." Foreman said with as much dread as he could muster. I watched as the two of them ran for the Sky Ranger. The jumped in the back of the aircraft. Macabe must have told the pilot to start the engines as he was running over, because it took off in a matter of seconds. Emmerich turned to me.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" He asked unsurely.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to find a deck chair to sit down on. If I'm going to die, I'm going to do it with comfort." I walked off towards the armoury, leaving Emmerich unsure of what to do. He eventually caught up with me. Made my way into the armoury. There was an old Chinese man in combat fatigues reading a book. He looked as though he hadn't been sleeping well for several days. I took off my rocket launcher and laid it on the table in front of him. "I. Need. A. Rocket." I said as clearly as I could. The old man just looked at me. His blank face unchanging. I turned to Emmerich. It took him longer than it should of for him to realise that I needed him to translate but, eventually, he did. The old man got up from his chair and disappeared behind a mesh wire fence. He came back round a moment later with a rocket. He handed it to me, sat down and went back to reading his book. I picked up the rocket and the launcher and went back outside. Emmerich followed behind.

"Where are they?" Emmerich asked as I reloaded my rocket launcher. I looked up once I had finished.

"Look at the Arachnus. They will be between _it_ and _us._ " I said in a rather patronising tone. It didn't take long for me to spot the firestorm. It was still heading right for us. I scanned the building tops and saw the Sky Ranger, t was just beginning its ascent now. It rose till it was level with the firestorm. The firestorm then turned abruptly, almost instantly and headed straight for the Sky Ranger. I held my breath. I could see that the ramp had been lowered, but I couldn't make out any of the people from this distance easily. The two aircraft were going to collide. There was a small flash from the Sky Ranger and then it dived out of the way to avoid being hit by the oncoming firestorm. At first, the firestorm didn't do anything. Then it slowly began diving. It was going to hit the Arachnus. Three. Two. One. It missed. The Arachnus began rising and continued to rise. The Firestorm missed the lower tentacles by mere metres. It plummeted to earth and into the burnt area of the city. Emmerich and I watch as the Arachnus rose upwards till it could no longer be seen by the naked eye.

"Where do you think it went?" Emmerich asked at last. We were still looking upwards towards the night sky when the Sky Ranger returned. Macabe and Foreman walked over to us. Foreman was beaming, but Macabe's face was full of concern.

"So I'm guessing it worked?" I said to the two of them.

"Apparently." Macabe said as he looked off towards the perimeter fencing. The sound of the fighting had stopped when the Arachnus left. Whether that was a good or bad sign was still yet to be determined. "Let's go talk to the general. Hopefully he can fill us in." The three of us set off towards the command bunker. Inside the mood was joyful. The soldiers inside were smiling and laughing. Even the general didn't seem quite as miserable as usual.

"I don't know how you did it, Macabe, but I thank you." The general said, shaking Macabe's hand. "Their main ship has retreated and the alien forces are in disarray. It's just a matter of clean up for my troops now. If there's anything I can help with…?" He trailed off.

"There is one thing. There was a helicopter earlier that took our wounded away from the battle. If you could tell us where it went, I'd be much obliged." Macabe said. The general nodded and turned to one of his subordinates. He said something in Chinese. One of the operators checked his computer screen and replied to him. The general's face grew unsure which quickly turned into anger.

"I am sorry. My operators tell me they have no record of a helicopter flying around Beijing." Macabe furrowed his eyebrows. He looked at the floor for a moment before respond.

"Very well, general. Thank you for your assistance. My team and I will visit the crash site of our firestorm, to try and work out what happened. From there, we shall return home." Macabe informed hm. The general nodded and turned back to the work of clearing out the remaining aliens in Beijing. The four of us left and walked over towards the Sky Ranger. With the danger over, I took the time to relax for a moment. The flight over to the crash site was quick. Within ten minutes we were circling overhead, trying to find a landing site. Eventually, we came across an area of flat ground, roughly one hundred metres from our downed aircraft. The Sky Ranger settles down and the ramp was lowered. Despite the danger having left, we all kept our weapons to hand. Through the rubble we came across the crash site. The firestorm had carved t's way through ten different buildings before stopping in a relatively open area. We approached the firestorm from the rear. We were about thirty metres away from the rear hatch when a thought occurred to me. Something about the whole situation seemed wrong. I called out to Macabe.

"Hang on." I signalled to Foreman and together we took up positions where we had a clear line of sight to the rear hatch. I set up my bipod and signalled to Macabe that we were ready. He walked over to firestorm, weapon raised. He was less than a meter away from the door when it hissed open by itself. The Rear hatch lowered to reveal a creature. Floating in the doorway of the rear hatch was a tall, thin alien. The blue robes that it wore were inscribed with golden writing, unlike any earth language. The creature wore a large ornate helmet which covered its entire head. It had no visible eye slits, yet still it seemed to look around at the four of us. Macabe raised his weapon to the alien. It threw out a long, spindly blue arm and flung Macabe several feet away, knocking his weapon out of his arms. Foreman fired his plasma sniper, but the blue robed alien deflected the shot with some sort of energy barrier. I put down my heavy plasma and pulled out my rocket launcher. I only had one shot, so I had to make it count. I aimed down the sights. Macabe was just far enough away not to be caught in the blast. Travelling at up to speeds of three hundred metres per second and carrying a large enough payload to take out an armoured vehicle I was sure that this was going to work. I fired. The rocket left the launcher, gaining speed as it travelled towards its target. I closed my eyes and covered my ears ready for the inevitable impact. But there was nothing. I looked up to see that the alien had caught the rocket mid-flight, mere feet away from it, in some telekinetic grip. It cocked its head, almost examining the missile that was still firing its exhaust, yet stationary in the air. That's when I noticed Macabe. He had pulled out a plasma pistol and was aiming it, not at the alien, but at the rocket itself. I think I actually saw him smiling as he pulled the trigger. The plasma round hit the rocket, detonating the explosives outright. The fireball engulfed the alien and the rear part of the firestorm. The roar of the explosion and concussive blast had Foreman and myself ducking behind our little cover. When the flames had died down, all that was left was a charred body of the alien. The blue robes, now covered in ash and soot. Macabe, Foreman and I advanced on the alien, which was now cowering before us.

"You fools." The alien spoke, but we didn't hear it using our ears. No. It was speaking directly to our minds. "You do not know what is approaching. We were merely the messengers, sent here to prepare you."

"Prepare us for what?" Macabe asked. Hs weapon still trained on the alien's head.

"The Old Ones. They have been seeking something between the distant stars. You, New Ones, are what they have been seeking. They sent us here. They will come, as they came to us. They enlightened us, made us prosper. But you defy the gifts that they bring. Why?"

"You have been attacking us. Killing innocent people all over the world." Macabe said calmly. The four of us were transfixed by the creature before us. "Did you really think we wouldn't fight back?"

The alien seemed to pause for a moment, considering the thought. "No. I suppose not. But that is not for me to say. We came here to see if you were truly strong enough to defeat the Old Ones so that we could fight them together." The voice of the alien was growing quieter as he spoke.

"If you truly desired an alliance against the Old Ones then why did you not come in peace?" Macabe snapped.

"We… could not." The alien took one last look at the four who had defeated it before dying. The charred corpse of the alien lay slumped against the ramp of the firestorm. The four of us took a moment to reflect upon the alien's dying words. At last, Macabe spoke up.

"We have to return to XCOM. They need to know of this." Without saying another word Macabe walked away from the crash site towards the awaiting Sky Ranger. Emmerich followed behind hm. Hs face was full of fascination and intrigue. I took the moment to get one last look at the alien we had defeated.

"What is it?" I asked to no one in particular.

"An ethereal." Foreman said, before walking off to join Macabe and Emmerich, leaving me alone with my thoughts.


	9. Chapter 9

**London Mission**

Our flight back was full of mixed emotions. We had defeated the Arachnus, saved Beijing and ultimately China. At least for the time being, anyway. But the two empty seats where Lagann and Kessell should have been were empty. The Chinese general had his men working round the clock to try and find any links to the sightings of the helicopter we had seen. But it was all for naught. No one had seen anything. The general said he would let us know if any new information came up, but not to hold out any hope. Macabe had informed Central of our situation. The four of us remaining just sat back in our seats and waited for the flight to end.

Upon arrival, I learned that the Strike Two had also returned from their mission. I talked to one of the members, I believe it was Blackburn and he gave me a quick recant of the events. Despite the mission being a success there was one part of the mission briefing that made my heart sink. Ethyl had been killed in London trying to defuse an alien bomb. There were no remains. I couldn't believe it. Of all the original member of Strike Two, I was the only one left. Williams, Wesson, Smart and now Ethyl. I had to find out the full story so I went back to the same sources of information that I used to find out about the Tokyo mission.

 _Following the request for help from the UK government, Major Ben "_ Pipothy _" Hawker was tasked with leading a team to investigate the disturbance. No information was given about the nature of the task at hand, but the Major was warned about the possible involvement of Squad 451- a legendary team of former XCOM operatives commonly thought to be a work of fiction, now apparently a rogue element following the Munich bombing of July 2014._

 _To this end, the squad were also assigned a psychic assassin by the name of "_ Jules _", implicitly there to assist in the termination of the 451. Upon their arrival in London, they were informed that one of the members of the 451, a Frenchman wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and going by the handle of "_ Vlad _", had been captured whilst engaged in suspicious activity in the Tube Network. Under interrogation, Vlad revealed that the aliens had been active in London for a period of several weeks, and claimed the 451 had been fighting against them. He also claimed his unit had been set up by XCOM in regard to the Munich disaster after they learned disturbing information about the formation of the Council and XCOM itself._

 _Supposedly, when the aliens invaded Earth for the first time in the 1960's, the original Council- consisting of the US and Russia- promised the Ethereals something in exchange for peace. Squad 451 supposedly went rogue upon learning of this, believing the Council to have sold humanity out and to have deceived them ever since. The 451 arrived in London due to the defection of another of their number to the alien side, their German explosives expert "Badger." He has supposedly been helping a squad of aliens known as the "Mutts" set bombs all over the Tube with the intent of bringing the entire city down. Vlad also mentioned the 451 had been pursued by the bioweapon designated "Nemesis" for a considerable period of time._

 _The interrogation was then interrupted by the arrival of another member of the 451, an African woman going by the name of "Lady", who attacked the station where Vlad was being held. Her body is known to be at least partially cybernetic and she wielded a rail gun almost as large as she was. Major Hawker then negotiated an uneasy truce with Vlad to defuse the bombs and kill Badger. Vlad was turned over to the custody of his "girlfriend" and disappeared after flirting with the Major some more._

 _Sometime later, the squad met up with Vlad again at the agreed point in the Tube tunnels. He claimed other members of the 451 were in the vicinity and were working on freezing the bombs until the London bomb squad could clear them away properly. The party split up to cover more ground, whereupon Badger greeted them over the tannoy system. He claims to enjoy playing games with the "XCOM pigs" and set them a series of challenges, including a guessing game, Muton suicide bombers, playing I-Spy with moving bombs, and unleashing his "pets" on them- actually a series of rabid, aquatic Chryssalids._

 _Eventually the team located Badger, who had experimented on himself with apparently Old One technology. Jules hacked him to pieces, but was then shot from behind by the squad's sniper, a Sergeant Noam Levi, in the process. He survived and the situation almost turned into a bloodbath before Major Hawker calmed things down. Vlad was critically injured by a bomb blast, but there was no sign of a body. Lady vanished as the squad investigated Badger's last bomb- a colossal monolith of a device easily recognisable as Old One technology. One of the squad's psychics, Operative Ethyl Johnson, stayed behind to attempt to disable the device. She succeeded, but apparently sacrificed her own life in the process, with no body left behind._

 **Chapter 9**

"You can't crack if you're dead."

\- Captain Dennis "Leeroy" Blackburn

The XCOM facility, despite having a seemingly unlimited supply of money being funded to it, didn't have a bar. In times like this, I would have gone to a get a drink at the local town back in Switzerland, but unfortunately, my current job didn't allow for that. So instead, I lay down on my bunk, staring at the matt grey ceiling above me. I thought about Ethyl, Williams, Wesson, Smart even Viktor came into my mind at one point.

We'd been back at XCOM for almost a week now. When we had arrived, Macabe was whisked away by 'the council' who apparently wanted an update. While that was going on, I was taken to see the Old Man again. He presented himself as his usual uncaring pragmatic self. I was asked about the mission, what I thought and what I would have done differently. It wasn't until after the debriefing that the information about Ethyl and London really hit me. I took it upon myself to try and not seem weak so I tried to distract myself by doing activities like weapon drills, target practice, exercise, anything really to take my mind off of it.

As I continued to try and distract myself I couldn't help but notice that no-one seemed to really be reacting to the events of London or Beijing. They just seemed to continue on with their jobs, whether it be research, engineering or security as if the outside world was something for other people to worry about. I had to admire their resolve, but other than a few kind words from Shen, no-one seemed to care. They just seemed hollow. The few people who did seem to care were the group of people who went on the missions. The members of Strike One, Two and Three all seemed to take a hit from the loss of one of the operatives, which did help to console me a little. But still, the whole thing was just an emotionless hole to me.

The loss of Ethyl wasn't the only thing playing with my mind. Since the aliens arrived, we've been on the back foot ever since. The aliens seem to be hitting us here there and everywhere with a seemingly limitless supply of forces. The US is under attack as is Russia, the Old One ship, the Arachnus, is still around and EXALT seem to be harrying at us. But the news that the ethereal brought to us was the most concerning. There were more Old Ones coming. A lot more. As prepared as we were, I couldn't see any method of being able to stop them. Our weapons are just shrugged off by their ships. They've withstood nuclear weapons, missile and all manner of other weapons that are unique to XCOM. Lying in my bunk there, I couldn't help but think it was all hopeless.

My thoughts about our situation were interrupted when I noticed someone at the side of my bunk. I looked up to see that it was Macabe. He dressed in the usual combat fatigues that everyone wore. He looked very apprehensive. Something big must have been about to go down. I sat up in my bed and acknowledged him. "Sir. Is there anything I can help you with?" I asked. I didn't say anything to give it away, but my heart was pleading that we were to be going to do something, anything, to take away the boredom and sadness I was feeling.

"Cain, I'd like you to come with me. We've got a mission." He said. I nodded and got out of my bunk a little too eagerly. Macabe's face looked confused for a moment, but he quickly dismissed it. He nodded in the general direction of the door and we began walking. "We've been contacted by the US." He said as we passed through the doorway into the corridor. I raised an eyebrow as I waited for him to continue. "They alien attack has all but wiped out their Northern military forces and they're having to pull back." We passed a trio of guards as we walked who were going the other way. I only caught the odd phrases, but it sounded as though a ship had been shot down somewhere in southeast Russia. My focus switched back to Macabe when they had passed.

"So things aren't going well?" I asked. Macabe snorted in amusement.

"You have a way with words, Cain." Macabe said sarcastically. We turned a corner, narrowly avoiding a trolley of munitions being taken to the hangers. "No. It's not going well. There's been an update. Apparently the American forces located in New York managed to hold of the Aliens for quite some time however reports have come in that they have been…liquidised." I looked at Macabe to make sure I had heard him right. He looked back with a solemn look. Well fuck, I thought to myself. "Needless to say the Americans are getting their arses kicked. You and I are going to America very shortly." I nodded in agreement, then I realised that would only mean two operatives for the strike team.

"Wait, only us two are going?" I asked confused. Macabe shook his head.

"Not exactly. You remember Leng?" Macabe asked me.

"He was the guy who kidnapped Lagann and Kessell, right?" I asked.

"That's him." Macabe confirmed. "Well Colonel Leng has contacted us, offering his aid against the aliens and to return our two operatives who he 'saved' in Beijing." Macabe must have seen the disbelief on my face because he cracked a slight smile. "I know, hard to believe." I thought for a moment before saying anything.

"So, trap?" I asked.

"Trap." Macabe agreed. "Regardless of that, we _do_ need to go to America to help the armed forces there and to get our troops back."

"What about Leng?" I asked, a little concerned that we would, not only be working with EXALT, _again_ , but also someone who effectively kidnapped two of our personnel. Macabe paused for a long moment as if trying to find the right words to respond with.

"At this time, the Commander has decided that we can't engage Leng or his team until the alien forces have been pushed back. Besides, for all we know, they might not have had a choice to leave in Beijing." Macabe said with as much hope as he could muster. It wasn't a lot. I don't even think _he_ believed the words he was saying.

I sighed. "I'd like it to go on record that I've got issues with working with EXALT, specifically Leng." Macabe nodded to himself.

"It's been noted. Regardless, this is the way it is." We had been walking for some time now. I don't think either of us rally knew which way we were going when we had set off, but we had made our way towards the armoury. We stopped outside the main entrance to it. "Is there anything that you need to get or do before we leave?" He asked. I thought for a moment. I placed a hand on my sword and shook my head.

"No. Everything I need is either on me or in that room." I said, gesturing to the armoury.

"Good." Macabe said, satisfied. "You've got ten minutes to prepare, then we're heading out. Do you have any questions?" I shook my head. "We'll be briefed on the latest situation when we arrive in America." Macabe turned to go into the armoury to get his kit on, but before he did, a question popped into my head.

"Where _are_ we going?" I asked.

"New York." The Colonel said as he went through the door way. We left the hanger in one of the Sky Rangers ten minutes later. It was odd sitting in the rear of the Sky Ranger with only one other person. It looked so empty. I tried to take my mind off of my team who were no longer there and instead onto the mission ahead. If this mission was to be anything like Beijing, we were in for a hell of a fight. Macabe was looking over some data on his tablet device. He didn't seem like talking which was fine by me. I just relaxed in my seat and tried to prepare myself for the mission ahead.

We touched down in America a few miles to the south of New York where the American forces had pulled back to. It was a small little suburban area filled with quiet little houses and streets. You wouldn't have known that there was an alien force massing just an hour or so north of this location. Macabe and I were met by two men dressed in Military uniforms. They both saluted as we departed our aircraft. One of the men was the General that we were to meet. It was obvious due to the amount of medals he had pinned on his chest as to which of them he was. The other was a corporal, most likely his personal aid. Between the arrogance that the General emitted and the exhausted look on the corporal's face, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the man.

Macabe was the first to speak. "You must be General Demetrius." Macabe said.

The general stood crisply at attention. I swear though, if he was to thrust out his chest any further, Macabe and I would have been pushed back onto the Sky Ranger. "I am indeed." The General glanced at me for a brief moment. He didn't really seem to care though, his focus was solely on Macabe. "Follow me gentlemen." He waved his hand for us to follow as he turned and walked away towards one of the buildings. Macabe and I exchanged glances but quickly followed the General as he made his way forward. He led us towards one of the smaller buildings. There were armed guards posted outside it who quickly came to attention as the general approached. One of them barely looked as though he was out of basic training. _These_ were the soldiers that the Americans were sending in to fight Aliens? No wonder they were losing.

We entered into the house to find it had been hastily converted into a forward command bunker. There were radios, maps, TV screens, and radar, everything a well-equipped force should have. We turned into one of the chart rooms to see a pair of familiar faces. Lagann and Kessell were talking to each other but abruptly stopped when Macabe and I entered the room. "I will give you a few minutes to get reacquainted, but we must get to business soon." General Demetrius left the four of us and went off to talk to one of his subordinates. Hs aid following behind. Macabe seemed very pleased to see them and went over to shake Kessell's hand. I hung back a little. Something didn't seem quite right. That said, these weren't exactly _normal_ circumstances.

"Kessell, Lagann, are you alright?" Macabe asked, genuinely concerned. The both looked a little confused.

"Why wouldn't we be alright?" Kessell asked looking at Macabe and myself.

"Well, we haven't heard from you since Beijing. And you weren't exactly in a fighting state when we last saw you." Macabe said. He looked over to Lagann who was just listening in to the conversation. "Well I'm pleased you two are well. Which brings me onto my next question. Where's Leng?" Macabe asked.

"I'm here." Macabe and I spun around to see Leng standing in the door way. My trigger finger twitched. Unlike the last time we saw him, he was now dressed in full combat gear, not too dissimilar to the armour that Macabe and were wearing. Leng salutes Macabe formally, but Macabe hesitated before returning the salute. "I trust everything is in order?"

"About that." Macabe said, looking Leng square in the face. "Why have we not heard from you till before this mission?" He asked, his voice dripping with authority.

Leng straightened up before answering. He didn't seem offended by the Colonel's question, which was more concerning than I would have liked. "Well that's becau-…"

Leng was interrupted by Demetrius entering the room. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we're on a very tight time schedule and our window of opportunity is fast approaching." Macabe was clearly irritated by this sudden interruption, but Leng couldn't have cared less. At least that was what I thought until I saw a small grin cross his mouth as he turned to face the General. The six of us gathered around the table with the chart on, so the General could begin his brief. "I'm not going to lie to you. It's a shit storm out there. The Aliens have us out manned, out gunned and out manoeuvred." He pointed to an area on the map. It was one of the parks in New York. "We had almost nine hundred troops in this area alone when the aliens bombarded us from orbit. Needless to say, it broke our lines and the aliens flooded in. They now control Manhattan and the Northern mainland." He looked up at us before continuing. "Due to this overwhelming fire power, we haven't been able to move our troops in the open for fear of them being bombarded from the sky." Macabe nodded slowly, taking all of the information in. Leng just stood silently, waiting for the general to continue. The general turned and spoke directly to Macabe. "We have determined where the aliens are directing their forces from. There's a ship, slightly larger than the others, which is giving off a signal to the other ships. We believe these are communications of some kind."

"Then why don't you just shoot it down?" Lagann asked the general, slightly puzzled.

"We have." The general said, irritated. "The ship seems to have some sort of device on board so that when it's attacked it transfers control to a different ship almost immediately. Basically it means it's pointless trying to shoot it down." The general looked at each of us waiting for an answer. Macabe thought for a moment before speaking.

"Where does the ship usually land?" Macabe finally asked.

"It doesn't." The General said. "Why what are you thinking?" He asked, curiously.

"I was thinking my team sneak on board and disable this transmitter along with the device that transfers control." Macabe said. The general nodded slowly, considering the idea.

"How would you go about this?" Leng asked. The others had almost forgotten he was there. Leng had an uncanny ability to go unnoticed.

Macabe looked at him, then back to the general. "The Chinese have been working on a program that works like a computer virus. If all the alien ships are connected, we might be able to take them all out. At least the ones attacking America anyway." The general raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Do you have this program with you?" The general asked Macabe.

"No. But give me a moment to talk to my base and we should be able to transmit the program to a device and hopefully be able to upload it." Leng didn't say anything, but his eyes darted between the two senior officers.

"Very well." Demetrius said, a slight grin on his face.

"There's just one problem." Kessell interjected. "How are we going to get on board?" The team all stopped to think for a moment.

"You said that the ship doesn't land, correct?" I asked. The general gave me a single nod of confirmation. "Surely it had to be getting supplied somehow? Maybe for fuel? Weapons? Something." The general pulled out a cigar and lit it.

"There are ships that seem to dock with the main one, for reasons unknown. It happens once every six hours or so. They seem to go up in threes."

"So they're supply ships?" Macabe asked. The general shrugged.

"We don't know." He said.

"Well maybe we could try to sneak on board one of them?" Lagann suggested. "We then disable the ship from the inside. They'll never know so they won't transfer control."

"That's all very well, but how are we going to get on board the supply ship? We're not exactly the most conspicuous group. Especially around aliens." I pointed out. Lagann was going to argue back but then realised that it was a good point. All of us would be pretty obvious to spot on the ship.

"I'm not." Kessell spoke up. The group all turned to him. "I'm wearing ghost armour." He said.

"Ghost armour?" General Demetrius asked, taking a drag from his cigar.

"It renders the user almost completely invisible for a limited amount of time." Macabe informed him. A mixture of surprise and intrigue came across the general's face. "But that only works for one of us. The rest of the team don't have ghost armour." Macabe pointed out. "Unless…" Macabe turned to face the general. "If the signal ship was damaged in some way, say the engines due to a malfunction, would it be fair to say it was likely to land to perform repairs? While it was landed, our team could sneak onto the ship, find the right terminals and shut it down." The general considered this option.

"I suppose." He said. "But the damage to the engine mustn't look like it was attacked. Otherwise they'll just transfer the signal and we'll be back at square one again."

Kessell straightened up. "Leave _that_ , to me."

"Now all we need to do is get your man onto one of the supply ships." General Demetrius said, blowing smoke down onto the chart in front of him.

"Does your people know which ship are likely to be supplying this signal ship?" Macabe asked.

"I'll find out." He turned to his aid. I hadn't even noticed him in the standing in the corner. "Jackson, go find out which of these ships are likely to be the next ones." The aid turned and left the room quickly. I watched him leave, then turned back to the chart of the area.

"So once we find a suitable supply ship, we sneak Kessell on board." Macabe began. "The rest of the team will distract the guards, allowing Kessell to slip in through the back door. Once inside, Kessell will wait until the supply ship has docked with the signal ship. Kessell will disable the engines in a way that doesn't look attacked. Once the ship lands for repairs we sneak on board, upload the virus and then leave."

"What could possibly go wrong?" Lagann said in a very drawn-out sarcastic way. The general nodded, mulling the plan over. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that the rest of the team had. We didn't have much of a choice on the matter.

"This mission is going to rely on stealth." The general said. "The element of surprise is key." We all nodded in agreement. "With that in mind, how are you planning on being stealthy with that?" He asked, pointing at the rocket launcher strapped to my back.

I looked at it before turning to the General. "It's okay. I was going to use a stealth rocket." Macabe slapped me on the back of my head. I probably deserved it.

"Do you have any weapons that are suppressed?" Macabe asked the general. He thought for a moment.

"We have a couple of carbines ready now, if you're ready for them." The general replied. Macabe looked over to me giving him a stern look. He knew I didn't want to give up my rocket launcher, but he also knew that we needed to remain as stealthy as possible. With a suppressed weapon, I'd be far more useful.

"How long do you need?" The general asked. Macabe looked to Kessell and Lagann.

"Ready when you are." Kessell said.

"Good." The general said, satisfied. The aid returned five minutes later with the locations of the supply ships that were most likely going to be going to the signal ship. Macabe selected the ship that provided good enough cover for us to attack, and for Kessell to be able to sneak around the back. Before we turned to leave for the mission the general stopped us. "Macabe, before you go, I would like you to take Jackson along with you. Think of it as the US's contribution to helping the XCOM project." Macabe hesitated, but the look I the general's eye told him that he didn't really have a choice on this particular matter. He accepted the offer and the team, along with Jackson, left the room and ventured outside to a group of HMV's that were waiting for us. The five of us were about to step into the vehicles when we were called to by Leng. The team turned around to find Leng standing next to four other people, dressed similar to himself.

"We're coming with you." Leng said. Macabe hesitated. "You're going to need all the help you can get." He pointed out. Macabe thought for a moment, considering his options. He finally came to a decision.

"Fine." I was shocked and very worried about this. I still didn't trust EXALT, but Macabe seemed happy to put his _and_ our lives on the line. I turned to Macabe.

"You can't be serious, Macabe?" I whispered but with enough force in my voice to make a point.

"We're going to need all the help we can get." Macabe said, holding my stare. "We don't know what sort of forces this supply ship _or_ the signal ship is going to have. I want options."

"I've got so many issues with this, Colonel." I said, glancing over to the EXALT group, making sure they weren't up to something.

"Well keep them to yourself." He said. Macabe turned and went into one of the HMV's. I followed a moment later. It was cramped inside with all our gear, but it could have been worse. I watched out the window as Leng and his team got into the car behind us. I was going to watch these people. This wasn't good at all. We all got inside the vehicles and headed off in the direction of the supply ship.

It didn't take long for the two teams to make it to the drop off location. Within half an hour we were getting out of our transports out about half a mile south of the last known location of the supply ship. Assuming it hadn't moved without us knowing, we were about to start phase one. As we got out of the cars I took in the sight. The whole area had been fought over for the last few weeks but already there was hardly a building in sight that had escaped the fighting. There were building and houses with roofs collapsed in where artillery fire must have landed short, or worse, actually hit their target. I took a moment to think about all the families that must have fled south. The two teams had set up fire positions in case we came under attack, but a little disturbingly, there wasn't anyone around. No people. No aliens. Not even a bird, scavenging for food. It was eerie. Macabe checked his map and compass and led us North, towards the supply ship. I couldn't help but notice the professionalism of the EXALT group. They moved like a proper military unit. I didn't trust them, but I at least could rely on them putting up a fight.

We moved through the war-torn area. The aliens hadn't set down in the densest part, but instead, they had set down more where the suburbs started to meet the city. We were still passing houses just before we came up to the supply ship. I was beginning to get paranoid. We had been skulking through an area that was meant to be packed with aliens, but we hadn't come across one. I was about to bring this up when Macabe ordered us to get down. I dropped to the floor, aiming down the sights of my heavy plasma, searching for a target. Macabe checked his map one last time. As everyone stayed still, Macabe moved forward towards a large pile of rubble. He crawled onto his belly and shuffled to the pile top of the pile. He looked over quickly before shuffling back down the rubble and returning to the strike team. He pulled the team and the EXALT group in. Lagann and Jackson kept a look out, along with two of Leng's team. The rest of us huddled around Macabe's map.

"Here is us." Macabe said, pointing to a built up area the map. "The ship is here." He said pointing to a point roughly 150 metres from where we were. Macabe turned to Kessell. "You're going to move round to the back of the ship. When you're in position, signal us and we will start the distraction." Kessell nodded. He stood up and slowly started making his way around the area that the colonel had pointed out. "The rest us." Macabe said looking at the group huddled before him, we're going to set up firing positions here, here and here." The two teams looked at the pistons that Macabe had pointed out. It all seemed good. Without another word, the remaining members moved into our various positions.

The XCOM and EXALT teams moved stealthily into their firing points. I was hidden amongst the rubble and debris of a bombed out building that used to be a home. The ruined bedroom to which I found myself in gave me a perfect view of the ship and the ground leading up to it. I wasn't alone though. Jackson had also chosen this room to use as his firing position. He set up his sniper rifle on a desk and aimed it towards the ship.

This was the first real chance I had to look at the ship. It was big. Not huge, like some of the supply ship I'd seen from looking at the XCOM schematics, but it was still impressive. It rivalled the size of a three story house, if that house had been laying on its side. I had no concern that Kessell would be able to find somewhere to hide until he needed to move onto the overseer ship. The area surrounding the ship itself was clear of rubble and debris. Whether that was a by-product of the ship setting down or deliberate work done by the aliens was difficult to tell. Regardless, there were still isolated pieces of cover that the aliens had placed around the entrance to the ship. I scanned the area noting the different aliens milling around, looking out for any sign of attack. There were a group of three mutons clustered together, grunting to each other near to the entrance. A bit further out, there was a sectoid curiously examining what looked to be a child's doll with an unfamiliar handheld device.

One by one, the team's signalled to Macabe that we were ready and we waited for Kessell. Ten minutes later, Kessell radioed in. Macabe acknowledged and gave the order to open fire. The three mutons didn't even realise they were under attack until two of them were dead, smoke still escaping through the holes in their skulls and chests. The remaining muton let out a blood curdling roar before a round from Lagann's grenade launcher hit him square in the chest. It stood there confused for a moment looking down at the weird metallic object now lodged in its chest plate before it exploded sending eviscerated chucks in a five metre circle around where the muton was standing. Jackson was lining up his rifle trying to take out the sectoid whom was now hiding behind a piece of cover. It made the unfortunate mistake of lifting its head up to see round the cover for Jackson to put a round clean through one of its large black eyes. Until Jackson had fired, it hadn't occurred to me that that was the first time I had heard conventional weapon fire in what felt like forever. I didn't have time to think about it for very long before a large group of alien reinforcements came spewing out of the mouth of the ship.

Four mutons lead by a much larger muton wearing a set of red armour came out of the ship. They took up positions around the entrance and opened fire at us. I began shooting in the general area trying to suppress the mutons as they fired back. Jackson aimed at the large muton and fired. The large red muton staggered back for a moment, but seemed unharmed. If anything, the muton looked enraged that something tried to hurt it. It swung its large plasma weapon round to face the two of us and unleashed a hail of fire. I just had time to duck down before the wall behind me was vapourised into a mist of green plasma. The air around my firing position stank of ionised particles. I gingerly looked back over my makeshift parapet to find the muton lying face down in a puddle. A decent sized hole had been blown out of the left hand side of the creature. I didn't know who had fired the shot, but I was grateful. I looked around to see the other mutons covering each other and firing back. It was a stalemate. I was about to take up my position and continue firing when Macabe ordered the retreat.

"Kessell is in position. All fire teams, fall back. Cain, suppressing fire." Macabe said over the radio. Why am I always the last one, I thought to myself as I opened up with my heavy plasma. The remaining mutons ducked their heads as the rain of plasma fire washed over their positions. I watched Jackson out of the corner of my eye as he moved with combat precision out of the room. Lucky sod. When I was confident that the teams had had sufficient time to retreat I pulled back myself. I crawled on my belly to the door so not to attract any unwanted attention. When I thought it was clear I left the room and departed the building.

I returned to our starting location to find the others already there. Four of the group were on look out as I re-joined the party. Macabe gave me a nod of acknowledgement before ordering the group to pull back. We retraced our steps through the urban zone and found an abandoned house to make our forward command post. It was a small two story, detached house. Like many of the other buildings we had passed, it had suffered some damage, but unlike the others it didn't look like any significant structural damage had been done. As we entered, we checked the floors to make sure we weren't going to have any unwanted surprises. When the all clear was given we set down our gear and caught up on rest. There was a clear divide between the XCOM and the EXALT operatives. Only Jackson seemed happy to talk to members of both groups. Despite us working together, there was still tension between all of us. In our defence, I think it was justified, seeing as they had _extracted_ two of our members without telling us where to.

With the free time that we were given, most of the group were checking their weapons and ammunition, ready for the upcoming battle. Macabe had set Jackson to keep watch from one of the first floor windows with clear instructions to inform him immediately when the ship took off. He didn't have to wait long. Within twenty minutes Jackson shouted down the stairway that Kessell's supply ship had taken off. I looked up from my ration pack that I was getting into to see the hulking ship take off. It quickly moved off into the distance and out of sight.

"How long do you think he'll need?" I asked to no one in particular.

"Hopefully not too long. We've only got a short window for this." Macabe said. It turned out Kessell had managed to disable the engines in just under twenty minutes. Macabe received word from the General that the ship had set down. There was one small issue though, and that was that it had set down in the middle of the Upper New York Bay.

"Well, they certainly like to make things difficult, don't they?" I said as Macabe informed us of our latest predicament.

"They do." Macabe agreed with no sense of amusement. "Pass me the radio. I'm going to inform the General of the situation." Macabe took the large radio off of Jackson and called him. The conversation was short. Macabe had asked the general if there was anything that he could do to help us. He had one suggestion. One of the nearby US ships had a bunch of diving gear. He said that we could use it to approach the ship. Short of that, there wasn't anything that he could do from his end. The diving gear was to be sent to us via car and would take an additional forty minutes. It wasn't ideal, but it was the best that we could do on such short notice. There was one small problem however. Lagann. He was never going to fit into a diving suit in his present state or even swim across. He'd sink before anyone could do anything. "The Sky ranger has spare parts for you doesn't it?" Macabe asked Lagann.

"It does… but it's my non-combat limbs." Lagann said hesitantly.

"They'll have to do." Macabe said. He picked up the radio and began talking into it. He informed both the Sky Ranger pilot and the general that we needed the robotic limbs.

Soon after the forty minute mark, we heard a vehicle approaching. It was foreman who saw it first, looking through his scope. We met the driver for a brief moment. He was a standard infantryman and he was arguably the most anxious person I'd ever seen, and considering the company I was now with, that didn't surprise me too much. He quickly dropped of the gear and sped off down the road he had come up. Macabe and I looked at each other for a moment. We checked the gear that we had been given. There were enough pieces of diving gear for us all and Lagann's replacement limbs were also carefully stowed amongst the other equipment. The two teams picked up their respective gear and headed off in the direction of the downed ship.

Another thirty minutes had passed before we had made our way through the bombed out city towards the bay. I couldn't help but think of Kessell who must have been starting to wonder if we were ever going to turn up. The XCOM and EXALT teams shuffled into a building which had had its doors blown open. The bullet marks and plasma scars gave away signs of a fire fight. The most worrying thing however was that there weren't any bodies. Human or alien. I began to get a bit anxious. The teams quickly changed into the gear they needed to cross the bay. Lagann switched his arms and legs for the non-combat models. Whilst he was sorting with his limbs, the others all equipped the diving gear. Each person was given a mask, a pair of goggles and an oxygen tank.

"This isn't a lot." Forman said, picking up the tank and slinging it on his back.

"No. But it's enough to get us across the bay, which is all we really need." Macabe said. Forman considered this for a moment, but said nothing else. All of us changed as quickly as we could and we headed out. A watch had been put on the ship in case it had moved or repaired itself. Fortunately, it hadn't. As we looked out across the bay a thought occurred to me. This seems too easy. Why had the ship not just switched roles while the repairs were taking place? I didn't want to voice these thoughts though, for fear of tempting fate. The group made their way down to a nearby harbour. With a silent nod to each member of the group, Macabe dropped into the bay. One by one, we all followed him in.

The water itself was bloody cold. I felt my heart jump as my feet met the surface. I'd take being shot over that any day. Regardless, there was nothing I could do, other than swim across the bay, just under the water line. The water was murky, but I could just make out the people ahead of me. We swam for what felt like 15 minutes before the signal was given to rise. I looked up and saw the bleak silhouette of the ship. We broke the surface.

Nothing looked out of the ordinary. The ship didn't look like it had moved. All of our members, plus the EXALT team were there. All was good. We clambered onto the side of the ship and perched onto a small platform that surrounded the entire ship. We moved in pairs, one covering with their rifle while the other ditched their scuba gear. With all of us now ready we moved to the doorway. The door was a thick piece of metal, not too dissimilar from the airlock I had seen on the first old one. I shivered as the memory of that mission came flooding back. I pushed the thought to the back of my mind and focused on the mission.

"What do we do now then?" Lagann asked.

"I've got a solution for this." Macabe said, as he pulled out a breaching charge and slapped it on the door.

"Where the Hell were you hiding that?" Jackson asked.

"Do you _really_ want to know?" I asked with a mixture of concern and worry. Macabe just shot us a stern look. Once the charge was in place, the two teams stacked up in place. Macabe counted down. Three… two… one…

"Wait!" Leng shouted. Macabe's finger was millimetres from the button.

"What?" Macabe asked with a little annoyance. Leng held up his finger indicating Macabe to be quiet. He moved over to the door, placed his hands on the locking mechanism and turned it. There was an audible clunk and the door swung open. I began to snigger. Macabe sharply turned round to me. "Not. A. ." I put my hands up in a mock surrender. With our entrance now made, we moved in with as much stealth as possible into the ship.

The first thing I noticed was that the ship was cold. Very cold. If it wasn't for the fact that we were trying to be stealthy, I would have made a joke along the lines of Hell freezing over. The teams all had their suppressed weapons at the ready. No need to give away that we're here by loud gunshots. We continued down a corridor till we reached a cross roads. From looking at the schematics of ships not too dissimilar from this one, we deduced that one way led towards the bridge and the other led towards the engine room and the cargo bay. I got a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"So where now?" Jackson asked.

"My men and I are going to the Cargo hold." Leng said suddenly. Macabe and I looked at each other. Something seemed a little off.

"I think it would be better if we stick together." Macabe said, eyeing up each of the EXALT members. I tightened the grip around my weapon.

"I'm sure that you will be fine." Leng said. He reached into his webbing and pulled out several syringes. He tossed them over to Macabe who caught them neatly. Leng saw the inquisitive look on Macabe's face and answered the question before Macabe could even ask it. "It's a neuro-toxin that EXALT have been developing. Lab tests have proven it to be very… effective at dealing with enemies, however it still needs to be field tested. If you get the chance, try it." Macabe held up the vials cautiously.

"Very well. We'll radio you when we've completed our task. Meet back here and we'll return to base." Macabe said. Leng nodded in agreement. I, however was less than happy with this. I turned to Macabe and looked him dead in the eye.

"I _really_ think it would be a good idea to stick _together_ for this, Sir." I said with the slightest of nods towards the EXALT members.

"I'm confident that we'll be able to complete our task." He said. The look on his face told me that his mid was made up. There was no way of changing it. Regardless of how I felt, I had to work together with the team if we were to get through this in one piece. I kept my mouth shut. The two teams split up and headed off in their respective directions.

The XCOM team with Jackson in-tow moved quickly and quietly through the ship's hallways. We came across few guards as we moved our way through. Those we couldn't avoid Macabe and I stealthily took down, either with our knives or carefully placed shots with our suppressed weapons. Kessell had given us a rough guide of the layout of the ship through our heads up display. It wasn't great, but it at least pointed us in the right direction. Eventually we found ourselves outside what we though was the command centre. Macabe was about to give us an order when Kessell turned the corner and saw us. The sigh of relief on his face was very apparent.

"Kessell, what's the situation?" Macabe asked.

"Well-…" Kessell began but was cut off by an alarm sounding throughout the ship.

"Shit. We've been detected" I said, although with the siren going off, it felt a little redundant saying it.

"Quickly. Inside!" Macabe ordered. There wasn't time to stack up and get ready to breach the door. None of us knew if our window of opportunity was blown. The team ran inside. Guns at the ready. Looking for targets.

The team had been thinking the worst as they passed through the doorway. Aliens. Monsters. Automated turrets. All the possibilities swam through my mind, but they were all wrong. On the other side of the door was a large room. On the far side wall were twenty screens all showing various combat zones throughout America. Four high and five across. In the middle of the room was a chair, almost like a throne. It was completely isolated from any terminals that we could see. The team moved further in, all transfixed by the screens. Macabe turned towards the chair. He drew out the device carrying the virus. He was looking for an interface of some kind when we heard a voice coming from behind us.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A deep guttural voice said. We all turned around aiming our weapons. The creature that spoke was a muton dressed in a bright red, ornate yet seemingly very heavy armour. The gilded helmet that he wore shone with an intricate golden pattern. The armour itself was covered in small scratches where small arms fire has tried to take down the beast, unsuccessfully. He wasn't alone either. On either side of the muton were three heavy mutons, all carrying heavy plasma weapons and aiming them in our direction. "Drop your weapons now." The look he was giving us told us he wouldn't repeat himself. Hesitantly, Macabe placed his grenade launcher on the ground. The rest of us slowly did the same. As I placed my weapon on the ground, I made sure that it was pointed in the direction of the mutons. The lead muton looked at each of us individually, as if looking for someone, or something. "Which one of you is the leader?" He asked. I don't know whether the wires in his head short-circuited or he just thought this was his time to shine, but out of the corner of my right eye I saw Jackson step forward. The entire room turned to look at him, frowning in confusion. Even the mutons regarded him with disbelief. His head was held high. His chest, pushed out. He looked like the ideal soldier, designed to inspire men to greatness.

"Jackson, the fuck?" Macabe said irritated as the young American stepped forward. "Get back in line." All the pride that was flowing through him vanished. Jackson's head snapped round as he suddenly realised what he was doing. He face blushed red.

"I…" Jackson began.

"Jus-… Just go stand over there." Macabe said pointing to a spot behind him. Jackson shuffled backwards, his head held low. I heard Macabe sigh to himself as he turned to the muton leader. "I am Colonel Macabe. I am in charge."

"Here." The muton said, pointing to the ground in front of him. Hesitantly, Macabe obliged. He walked over to the spot the muton had indicated. "Kneel." The word sent a shiver down my spine. Macabe lowered himself and looked up at the alien.

Macabe looked the muton dead in the eyes. "I've told you who I am. I think it's only fair you return the favour." He said, without flinching. If there was one thing I would say about Macabe, it's that he's balls the size of Space Hoppers.

The alien grinned. He pulled out a large jagged machete from one of the scabbards attached to his hip and held it next to Macabe's face. "One more word out of you, and I'll take one of your eyes."

Macabe held his stare.

"I am General Ghazakhull Mag Uruk Thraka the Fourteenth, King of Old Sakaar, Scourge of the Skola Vale. Heart-eater, Defeater of the Caerbannog. Deathbreather and Machine-breaker and Throat-Slitter are my deeds. The sun runs in fear before my shadow. Across a thousand battlefields have I strode, and before my roar, armies quail and womenfolk lament." He looked around at each of us before quickly turning back towards Macabe. "What are you doing on my ship?"

"Sightseeing." Macabe said flatly. That's when Macabe started to do something very cunning. With his hands behind his back, Macabe began to undo one of the flash bang grenades attached to the back of his webbing. Because his back was to us, all of the XCOM team could see it, but the mutons seemed to remain unaware. I took a quick glance at the rest of the team. The all were fixed on Macabe's hands.

"You worthless species." The muton grunted, looking at Macabe. "You should know when you are beaten. How do you hope to stand against an army so vast, so powerful?"

It was hard to tell with his back turned, but I think I caught a glimpse of a smile from Macabe. "It's quite easy you see." Macabe began. "Have you ever heard of Flash Gordon?" For the briefest of moments, the muton looked puzzled and this was all the opportunity Macabe needed. He flung his body forward to the floor at the same time as he tossed the flash grenade upwards, right in front of the muton's face. With a meaty paw, he battered the grenade out of the air to his left and covered his eyes. The heavy mutons on the general's left had no time to recognise the threat and were subsequently blinded. I dropped to the floor, shouldering my heavy plasma, just in time as the six heavy mutons began firing. Fortunately for me, the shots went over my head into the wall and screens behind me. Jackson to my right wasn't so lucky. He had remained standing to fire his sidearm when heavy plasmas began spitting green death and as a result he took a round to the chest. I looked over to see the damage, but the top half of his body was missing, the flesh cauterised by the searing heat. I fired back at the mutons in a suppressing arc. It bought us some time. On the other side of the room, the stunned mutons were firing wildly in the direction of Lagann and Kessell. Lagann was charging the mutons but a lucky shot clipped him in the chest and he crashed forward onto the metal floor. Kessell had vanished using his ghost armour and was nowhere to be seen. Macabe, after tossing the grenade, picked himself up and dived back towards his grenade launcher. As he did so, he threw a ghost grenade at us, trying to conceal the surviving members. It worked, the four of us disappeared from view, which enraged the mutons immensely. The general shouted something guttural and the mutons in unison grabbed a small device from their webbings. It took me a moment to realise what I was seeing.

"GRENADE!" I shouted at the top of lungs. The mutons, not knowing where we were, decided to go for a more indirect route of killing us by carpeting the far side of the room with plasma grenades. I dived forward. Unfortunately, due to the ghost grenades concealing the user from everyone and everything, I had no idea if the others were moving out of the way in time. The mutons threw their grenades as I lay on the floor and covered my head. Fortunately, I had moved out the way just enough. The blast didn't catch me. I looked back behind me to see the remains of Jackson and Lagann form before me. It was not a pretty sight. I picked up my weapon and fired again. I was only about 10 meters from the mutons on the left hand side now and I hosed them all the ammunition I could. I can only assume that the look on their faces would have been surprise as I revealed myself just in front of them. None of them had time to react before I fired. The sustained fire was taking its toll. The muton elites began to fall. I looked out to my right to see Kessell appear point blank to the side of the muton General. He aimed at his head and fired. The shot went straight through the hologram and into the remaining muton I was about to shoot. Kessell only had a moment to realise what had happened before one of the stunned mutons swiped him aside with one of its massive arms. He flew backwards straight into the chair. He wasn't moving. I redirected my fire to the other mutons just as they erupted in a fireball of green plasma. Macabe had launched a salvo from his plasma grenade launcher, effectively melting the three remaining muton elites. The room smelt of decay.

"Casualty report!" Macabe ordered, reloading his grenade launcher. I looked around the room. The dead bodies of Lagann and Jackson were very obvious. I ran over to Kessell and checked him for any signs of life. He was unconscious and unless we got him medical attention immediately, he wasn't going to wake up.

"Lagann and Jackson dead. Kessell wounded and unconscious. We need to get him out." I replied, applying a bandage to the cut on his forehead. I couldn't be certain, but it looked as though he had a few broken ribs.

Macabe looked over to the doorway then back to us. "Shit!" He shouted. I picked up Kessell's crumpled body and slung him over my shoulder.

"I'm going to need a hand with him." I said as I made my way over to Macabe. My heavy plasma was making it cumbersome to manoeuvre with.

"Pass him here." Macabe said as he threw his grenade launcher onto his back. I grabbed my weapon and looked out of the corridor. The alarm was still going off. I looked down the hallway in both directions. Straining to hear over the sound of the alarm, I could hear the thumping of mutons coming the same way that we had come when we arrived.

"We're going to have to go the way Kessell came from." I said, aiming my weapon down the corridor of the sound of the footsteps. Macabe agreed. He started moving off with Kessell on his shoulder. The corridor was much the same as the others. Large enough for four abreast. The odd thing was there was a slight incline beginning to appear. The corridor was beginning to go upwards. We passed numerous junctions on our left and right, but Macabe was determined to continue going upwards. I think he thought we could escape out of the roof and at the pace we were going, it wouldn't be long before we were at the top of the ship. The sound of the mutons had died down and now it was only the klaxon of the alarm that keeping us company. We turned another corner to find a dead end. What looked like a heavy duty blast door blocked our path.

"You have got to be kidding me…" Macabe sighed as we approached the door. I looked it over There was no obvious mechanism to open it. I shouldered my plasma weapon and fired at the door. The only effect that that seemed to have on it was leaving scorch marks where the blasts had hit. Macabe put Kessell against one of the walls. "I don't suppose you've got any ideas?" Macabe asked, inspecting the door.

"Well I've yet to try _open sesame_." I replied, reloading.

"Not the time, Cain!" Macabe shouted, frustrated. I set up my bipod and aimed back down the corridor. Macabe began to think. All these years of experience and we were about to die because we couldn't open a bloody door. I was about to ask what he was thinking, but then I saw the colonel begin to search through his webbing. He smiled to himself as he pulled out one of the breaching charges that we were going to use to enter the ship. That's when he did something a little unexpected. He placed it on the left hand wall about 10 meters away from the door. He wasn't going to even try it on the blast door which, in my opinion, was the right choice. That door didn't look like it was going to budge. He primed the shape charges and we covered our ears. The explosion ripped through the wall as if it were paper, leaving a nice hole for us to climb through. I picked myself up and moved over to the breach. Macabe picked up Kessell and began moving over towards me.

I looked through the hole we had just made and was greeted with a not-so-pleasant sight. "Oh for fuck sake…" I sighed. Macabe cocked his head to the side as he watched me dive to the left of the breach, narrowly missing the muton General as he ploughed through the damaged wall. Macabe, with Kessell on his shoulder, took a step backwards towards the blast door. They were now trapped between the muton general and the blast door. The muton swung his head from side to side, looking at each of us in turn. I had to act fast. I couldn't fire my weapon like this for fear of hitting Macabe or Kessell, which left me only one choice. I dropped my heavy plasma along with my webbing and drew my sword. "Oi, you pompous little shit!" I shouted at the general. That got its attention. It turned to face me. The look on its face told me that it wasn't happy. "You've got some nerve, coming to our world. You think you're so powerful, so mighty with your ships and your weapons, but to me you just look pathetic." The muton's attention was now completely on me. "I've killed dozens of mutons, like you. Shot, stabbed, exploded. They've all have fallen by my hand. You will be no different. I challenge you, beast, fight me." I caught a glimpse of Macabe's face as the muton took a step towards me, drawing his crude machete-knives. It was a cross between shear disbelief and consigning me to death.

The muton general chuckled with a deep throaty voice. "Not for years has someone challenged me to one on one combat, worm. I shall delight in watching you squirm." Macabe moved towards the breach slowly, but not carefully enough to avoid the general's attention. "Oh no, you're not going anywhere, just yet." He said to Macabe. The blast doors opened to reveal a group of six heavily armed mutons. They raised their weapons at Macabe.

I was about to call out when the General launched his first assault. Fortunately, I had set myself up in a defensive stance and I was prepared for it. I deflected a flurry of blows with my rapier as I stepped backwards down the hallway. The size of the creature made his blows heavy and powerful. I quickly realised I wouldn't be able to stop his lunges, just deflect them. I drew in his guard an when I saw his defence open, I reposted. The General was quicker than I had even begun to imagine. He dodged backwards, making my attack miss. The muton attacked again. The grin on his face made me shudder. I parried his attempt and took up the attack. I cut at his lower torso, hoping to distract his so that I could re-engage his head. He was prepared for it, however, for he side stepped my attack and swung round so that we were side to side in the corridor. I ducked as he swiped at my neck. The blade missed my head by mere inches and ripped through the wall behind me. I rolled out of the way towards the open blast doors and resumed my en garde position with my back to Macabe. The muton began to lunge when a massive explosion rocked the ship. I could feel a wave of heat wash over my back, searing the hair on my neck. Fortunately for me, the explosion had knocked the General off balance. As he tried to regain his composure I lunged at his left sword hand. I felt my blade connect. With a neat cutting motion, I sliced off the top half my opponent's left hand. The dagger from the severed hand dropped to the floor with a clang as the General clutched his mutilated hand.

I took a brief look behind me to see what had caused the explosion. There was no sign of Macabe of Kessell, but the bodies of the mutons lay scattered around the hallway. On the floor were pieces of Macabe's grenade launcher. He must have overclocked the grenades, dropped the weapon and ran. An improvised explosive. Very effective by the damage. I turned back to the muton who was inspecting his damaged hand. "Do you know how long it's been since I've been injured in a fight?" The muton asked, looking at me.

"About twenty seconds, I'd guess." I said, tilting my head to the side.

The general laughed. "Ha. I like you." He said, baring his teeth at me. "This world is full of the pathetic and the cowardly. But you..." He pointed at me with his remaining hand. "You have got strength and courage. These are all things a warrior should have. My mutons are the finest warriors this galaxy has to offer. I lead them through strength of will and they follow. What is your name?" He asked.

"Andreos Cain." I answered, lowering my sword point.

"I have a proposition for you, Cain." I frowned at him. "Join me. This world will be plucked apart by the Ethereals and their masters. You can be spared, if you but join us."

"And what am I getting out of this… deal?" I asked, sceptically.

"War, of course!" The muton grinned. "A warrior such as yourself will find his fill of battle from no better source than from this army." He raised his hand and gestured around him. "You want more? I shall give you an army. Stand at my side we shall fight as brethren."

"And how do I know you won't just kill me?" I asked, still in the en garde stance.

He threw down his remaining knife and gestured with his remaining arm as if to shake my hand. "Kill me now if you believe it to be the right decision. But I know you, I see you desire. You thirst for battle and I shall provide it. Become my second in command, Cain. We shall fight, for glory and honour."

I looked at the muton general before me. He was defenceless. Alone. If I were to strike him down, now would be the time… However, this agreement. Side with the aliens. Fore-sake my kin. But the possibility to become more powerful than any human has ever been. The rapier in my hand was primed and ready. Its sword edge still dripped with the blood of the muton.

"Make your choice, Cain. I won't ask again." The muton said.

"Oh I've made my choice. I had made it a long time ago." I dropped the point of my sword and sheathed it. The muton grinned again. I stepped forward and gripped his hand. "I shall join you… Brother."

The muton began to laugh joyously. "Ha ha, I knew you'd see the right choice, Cain." The muton general said as he embraced me, squeezing me tighter and tighter. I thought I'd made a huge mistake, but then the pressure released. "Come, Cain." The general said, leading me off down the corridor which Macabe and I had come down. "We have much to discuss."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"Our battle plan seems to be working, which probably means it's a trap."

Lieutenant Andreos Cain, shortly before being ambushed.

There are many thigs one expects to do in a lifetime. Learn to ride a bike. Fall in love. Borrow a tenner from a friend with no intention of giving it back. You know, simple things. So when I say that I was surprised when an alien armada accepts you into their ranks, you know I mean it. Immediately after agreeing to join them, Ghazakhull gave me the biggest bear hug of my life. I was certain my bones were going to break, but fortunately, they didn't. I picked up my Heavy plasma and he led me towards the bridge of the ship through a myriad of winding corridors. Obviously the thought of making corridors with straight lines never occurred to these beings.

As we approached the bridge, two guards stood outside, waiting for intruders. When they saw their general, they braced. When they saw me, they almost shot me. They pulled out their weapons and trained them at my head. I would have been dead if Ghazakhull hadn't stepped in the way. He bellowed something in an alien language and the two guards immediately lowered their weapons and saluted. With their left arm holding the weapon vertical, they both placed a clenched fist from their right arm over where their heart should be. The fluidity at which they handled their plasma rifles was very impressive. With the two guards saluting, the general and I entered the bridge.

The bridge itself was a large room about ten metres wide and fifteen meters long. There were 5 terminals on either side of the room attached to the wall where a mixture of mutons and sectoids worked on the various consoles. At the far end of the room was a large viewing window, almost the full length of the wall, giving a view to the outside. From here, I could see the river and the city. In front of the viewing port was a chair, similar to the one in the room with all the computer screens. Ghazakhull march forward, with me in tow until we reached the throne. He sat down and began to bark orders to the various mutons. He wanted a full situational report. Sectoids and mutons began relaying information to him via holographic displays that appeared on the glass viewing window. The muton General inspected them carefully.

"It seems your former allies have escaped." Ghazakhull said, his voice dripping with annoyance. I won't lie, I was a little relieved. I'm not sure how I would have dealt with Macabe if he and Kessell had been captured. That's when I remembered the others.

"What about the EXALT team?" I asked. The muton General looked at me a little confused.

"Weren't they your allies?" He asked.

"Well…" I began. "More like allies of convenience. I didn't trust them, the sneaky little bastards." Ghazakhull chuckled throatily.

"Ha. I wouldn't have thought so. You like to fight things head on, Cain. The MUTON WAY!" The other mutons in the room looked over and started to grunt and roar with excitement. The sectoids looked nervous as if they thought a nearby muton might take a swing at them if they became too excited. "It appears they have left as well. They seem to have departed with your two surviving ex-members." Ghazakhull pulled up a security video on the display. From the look of it, Macabe was carrying an unconscious Kessell was about to make it outside through one of the open doors when he was stopped by Leng. Leng had drawn his pistol and was aiming it at Macabe's head. From the angle of the camera, Macabe looked unarmed and in no position to get the drop on Leng with Kessell thrown over his shoulder. The two of them began talking. That's when one of Leng's team appeared out of thin air behind Macabe. The woman had drawn her weapon and was also aiming it at Macabe but from behind. There didn't seem to be anything that Macabe could do. I watched mesmerised by the video on the screen. That's when Macabe began talking. He looked calm and collected. The security footage didn't pick up any sound so I had no idea what he was saying. He finished talking and there was a long pause. Finally, Leng's aim faltered and he lowered it to the floor. The female behind Macabe kept it trained on the Colonel's head, however. Leng gestured towards the doorway and the group exited the ship.

"So, what's the plan now then?" I asked.

The muton grinned. "We fight. Our troops have been waiting for the time to attack and finish off the humans on this continent. It's only a matter of time now." He stood up from his chair and turned to me. "Follow me, Cain, I wish to show you your new home."

"Lead the way." I said, still processing the word _home_. Ghazakhull led me through a number of different hallways and rooms. We passed several billet rooms where the crew made up of mutons and sectoids slept. There was a small dining area where the aliens could gorge themselves on whatever food took their fancy. From the quick glimpse into the area, the mutons were eating the same grey paste that XCOM was serving. Typical, no matter where you go, you can't avoid bad rations. We moved on to what looked like a planning room. There was holographic display of planet Earth, with a collection of locations that had been allocated various runes. The areas that were highlighted were Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Paris, Berlin, a godforsaken moor up in Scotland, somewhere in the Siberian tundra and a point in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The last rune stood out the most to me. It was the location of the XCOM base in the Antarctic. The aliens knew where they were this whole time. Next to each rune was a bullet point, however as it was written in an alien language, I didn't know what they said. I was about to question it, but Ghazakhull ushered me on.

As we ventured through the ship we came across a small room. Looking inside I saw two pairs of mutons training in hand to hand combat. One of the mutons was grappling its opponent from behind. With an inhuman strength, he pulled the opponent backwards, over his own head, to have it crashing down on the floor behind him. Ghazakhull looked over to me. He must have seen the shock on my face for he just grunted in amusement. The muton, who should have been dead from the blow, got on to his feet, as if nothing had happened and continued to fight.

"This is our training area. It is not ideal, but it gets the job done." I looked round the room. It was bare apart from one corner which seemed to have some sort of medical equipment. From time to time, the mutons would get a little carried away with their sparing and cause harm that required treatment. "You are to report here once you've gathered some rest. I wish for my mutons to train against a human."

" _I can't wait…_ " I said sarcastically.

"That's the spirit, Cain!" The General said, slapping my back a little too hard. It seemed to me as though sarcasm was lost on him. We continued the tour and finally ended up in front of a doorway.

"This will be your room, Cain." Ghazakhull said, looking down at me. "Inside you will find a bed, some food and a uniform."

I looked at him a little confused. "A uniform?" I asked.

"Yes, the sectoids have adjusted one of the smaller sets of armour to fit a human. If it doesn't fit let me know and I shall… deal with it." The look in his eyes told me that he would be doing more than spouting words at the sectoids. "Do you have any questions?"

"Just the one." I said. "Can I go anywhere on the ship?"

The General looked at me a little confused. "Of course, Cain. You're one of us now. You have as much freedom as any of my mutons." He said, smiling. From what it seemed like, these mutons didn't have any prejudice towards other races, provided they fought hard and honourably. I couldn't help but think we as humans could learn something from that. "I shall inform you when our next course of action is known, Cain." The general saluted me in the muton way and I returned the compliment.

With Ghazakhull gone, I entered my room. It was a small room, no larger than two meters wide, and not much longer. Inside was a bed, a bowl of food sitting on a desk and a wardrobe set into the wall. I sat down on the bed and took in my surroundings. My first thought was: This is at least better than XCOM's. With nothing else to do, I got up and had a look in the wardrobe to find the new uniform I was promised. It was big. The armour I had been provided with was not dissimilar to that of the Titan variant that XCOM used. The armour plating, despite being very thick, was incredibly lightweight. With a red tint, it could be likened to those worn by Ghazakhull's bodyguards. I put it on. Boots, legs, chest, arms, and a helmet were all provided and fit well. The seal around my neck closed as I placed the last piece on. Despite the size, it wasn't hard to move around in. I looked in the mirror. So this is what being paid by the highest bidder looks like, I thought to myself. Once I was used to the new bulk, I picked up my sword which was lying on the bed where I'd left it whilst I put on the new gear. Whether by luck or judgement on the sectoids' part, they had left a small catch for me to attach my sword. With the outfit now complete, I left my room and headed down the hallway. From looking at a few schematics that I had… liberated… shall we say, I found was able to make my way around the ship quite easily and moved towards the training area of the ship.

It wasn't long before I had reached the room. And during the walk, I passed numerous sectoids, toiling around with sections of the ship, repairing damaged caused by my old teammates and I. They had scampered out of the way upon seeing me. Whether that was how they always acted or not, I did feel a little smug as they cowered. The door to the training room was closed and I took a deep breath before entering.

The inside of the room was exactly what I had expected from such a warrior race. It was a space that must have taken up nearly half the deck, and it was filled with everything that could even remotely be needed to practice the art of war. Along the sides were a collection of staves, hammers, and other such hand-held implements that could used for sparing on any of the 10m2 mats in the top corner of the room. There was a small firing range off to the left-hand side where several mutons were honing their marksmanship. They were all wearing their armour, and from the stench rolling off them, I got the feeling once that they're in their armour, they rarely come out. As I took in the room, a larger muton approached me. He, like the others was dressed in full armour but of a higher rank. He saluted me and handed me a small device. I took it and examined it. It was not too dissimilar from a hearing aid used by someone who was going deaf. I placed it on my ear. There was a small whining sound as the device powered up. The muton before me grunted.

"Greetings, Cain." The device said into my ear. I saluted back.

"Greetings." I looked around at the room. "I was asked to report here by General Ghazakhull. He wishes me to train with you so you can learn our ways." The muton stood up tall, pushing his chest out.

"The Great Ghazakhull wishes us to fight with… you." I cocked my head to the side, not showing much worry about the tone.

"Is there a problem?" I asked.

"We are a proud race. To train with one of your kind is an insult." He said. Some of the other mutons that were around had noticed our little conversation and were looking over.

"Well if that's what you think, then you wouldn't be afraid to accept my challenge to fight?" I said gesturing to the sparing mat. The muton grunted and laughed. He leaned in close, towering over me.

"I'm going to enjoy this, little man."

"That's, little man, _Sir_." I corrected him. I was thinking in for a penny… The muton walked over to the weapon stand and picked out a staff around two and a half meters long. For a human, it would have been too tall, but these mutons were something else.

"Choose your weapon, Cain." I looked at the choice before me. All of it was too large, even if I had wanted to use it, but there was only ever going to be one choice. I drew my sword from its scabbard and moved onto the mat. The other mutons in the room had now left their activities and had begun to watch myself and my new friend. The two of us stood at opposite corners. The muton saluted me and I saluted back. There was a brief pause.

He charged.

I had less than a second to realise what was happening. Through instinct more than thought, I half dived and half rolled to the left as the muton brought his staff down from over his head to where I was previously standing. The staff he was holding made a metallic clang through the air as he collided with the ground. With my weapon drawn I looked for an opening. One of the gaps in the armour on his right arm was open. I prepared my weapon, but just as I was about to strike, he twisted around to face me at the same time as swinging the metal bar towards my head. I ducked, but lost my footing. The muton, clearly skilled at this, saw my misplaced balance and shoulder barged me, sending me flying onto my back. I got up onto my feet and positioned myself en garde. The muton, revelling in this, took a moment to examine my stance.

We circled each other. He was using an aggressive stance, one that extended his reach. Seeing that he had the longer reach naturally and the larger weapon, I saw that the only way to defeat him would be to close the distance, and rapidly. He waited until I was mid step and then lunged, trying to catch me of balance. Fortunately, I was expecting such tactic. The muton thrust the pole arm towards me. If it wasn't for my parry, knocking the blow off target, I fear that I would have been skewered. With my opponent now outstretched, I stepped forward, drawing back my sword and slashed downward with the forward blade. There was a faint look of surprise on the muton's face as I delivered the attack, but his reflexes were quicker than I had imagined. He jumped backwards over a meter and my sword missed by a hair's breadth.

With my opponent now on the defensive, I took up the attack. Strike after strike was aimed at the chinks in his armour, but all of them were deflected with an effortless grace. We were evenly matched. Once again we circled each other, looking for an opening. Neither of us willing to give anything away. It was at this point I decided a more unconventional tactic needed to be taken. With the staff aimed at a low angle, the muton was most likely to be attacking towards my legs with the hopes of knocking me off balance. Should that happen… well, let's just say I wouldn't need to worry about seeing anyone from XCOM.

As if on cue, the muton attacked. He swept the metal staff in a circular motion aiming for my left hand side. Normally I would have dodged this blow and attempted a counter attack, but I fear that that is what the muton would have been waiting for. Instead, I did the opposite. I stood my ground and braced for the impact. Were it not for the armour I was wearing, the swipe would have broken several bones. Fortunately, much to my joy, the internal servos and shock absorbers cushioned much of the impact. Don't get me wrong, it still hurt like a bitch, but I had him where I wanted him. With the staff buried into my side, I gripped it with my free hand, locking it in place. The muton looked angered as his weapon was held in place. I brought up my sword and came down towards my opponents head. The victory was mine.

Or at least it would have been, if he hadn't caught me by the wrist, mid swing. We were less than a meter apart, neither of us could move without letting go, giving the other the advantage. I could smell the breath of the muton. Trust me when I say I'd have preferred a rotting corpse. It. STANK. It was that very thing which gave me an idea however. With his helmet removed, the muton's head was surprisingly vulnerable. With all the dexterity I could muster, I launched myself off the floor, using the muton's own knee as a platform and ran up his chest. With my sword wrist being held, and using the grip that I had on the staff, I pivoted myself on those two points until my feet had reached his neck line, at which I put all of my power into kicking him in the face.

The blow itself sent a shockwave through my leg and up my spine. The head of the muton snapped backwards as my boot made contact with the bridge of his nose. The grip on my arm released and I let go of the staff to completed the backwards summersault off the muton's body. For a moment, everything was upside down as my body righted itself before landing. The muton had not seen this kind of attack coming and was on the floor lying on his back, dazed. He was about to stand back up but stopped when he realised my foot was on his chest and my sword point aimed at his eye.

There was a moment's pause. He looked both at my sword and then at myself, weighing up his chances of trying to catch me off guard. Unfortunately, he came to his senses. He closed his eyes and gave the slightest of nods. Feeling marginally disappointed, I withdrew my sword and stepped off him. As I stepped backwards, the muton picked himself off the ground.

"You fight well." He said. "For a human."

"And you also fight well… for a bitch." The muton half chuckled, half grunted.

"I was wrong to doubt you, Cain." He said, finally.

"Yes, you were." I said, not breaking eye contact. "It seems we can learn from each other, though."

"Indeed. I haven't fought like that in quite some time." He said looking around at the crowd that was now surrounding the sparing mat. Some of the mutons looked away, as if a little hurt by the comment.

"What is your name?" I asked.

"I am Gret Mala'an." The muton said, standing up tall.

"A pleasure, I'm sure." I said, bowing in a jokingly way. "I'm here to train with you. To teach you how to fight those like me." I neglected to mention that I would be learning to fight those of a similar build to a muton, but that's neither here nor there. He grunted in an approving way. The other mutons around us all looked at each other, unsure at first what to make of the situation. I however, was quite confident on how this was going to go.

I stood up and looked each one of them in the eye.

"Right you little shits, this is where the fun begins." I said. They were all focused on me. I picked one out of the crowd and ordered him towards me. The muton moved unsure of what was about to happen. I told him to go en garde. For the next hour or so, I taught and fought each the mutons whilst the others watched and took note. I showed them the main techniques that were used throughout the majority of the world's armed forces in unarmed and armed combat. By the end of it, they were beginning to understand the ways in which we went about fighting. The mutons themselves were slow learners, but they retained much more information through actually performing the action, rather than being told how to do it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little proud of them for just that. Gret Mala'an was unusually coherent and understanding for a muton. Of all of them, he was becoming my favourite.

Once the training session was complete, the mutons all retired to their respective quarters, apart from Mala'an. Without him, the training session wouldn't have gone as well as I would have hoped. He seemed to me to be a natural second in command to me. A sergeant to my officer. "I appreciate the help you gave me during that, Mala'an." I said.

"I was pleasure to serve, Cain."

"I have a feeling that before this is over I am going to require your services to urge and communicate with the mutons. This thing can only do _so_ much." I said tapping the translator.

The muton looked at me and cocked his head. "I am unsure what you mean, Cain."

I smiled. "I am promoting you to become my right hand. You will help to serve me and the mutons race in battle. Sound good?" I asked.

The muton roared in approval. The translator just gave up and said " _Happy Noises"_ into my ear piece. I laughed to myself. What's this Translator doing? It's best. "Excellent. In which case, you are dismissed, Mala'an." The muton saluted me and walked out of the training room. Given a moment to collect my thoughts I wondered how I'd come to find myself in this situation. Not 2 weeks earlier, I was fighting against these monstrosities., and now, face to face with them, teaching them how to fight. To win. Whilst on the one hand I was a little unsure as to how to proceed, I felt quite confident with my new-found allies. I mean, I am a mercenary after all. Finally getting the recognition I deserved after all this time. It felt good.

I walked out of the training hall and began my descent through the interior of the ship. I passed more barracks where the muton and the sectiods took rest and eventually arrived at the main cargo bay that was near the rear of the ship. That's when I saw it for the first time. An all too familiar chill descended upon me and I felt my thumb reach towards my palm in a similar way to the times when danger had been about but I'd not yet realised. This, however was very in my face. As I looked out across the cargo bay I saw a gem of pure yellow gold hovering silently in the centre of the vast cargo room. The other few mutons, sectoids and human slaves gave the gem a wide birth. Not a surprise, I thought. The last time I encountered an object like this was 20,000 leagues under the sea when faeces hit the turbine, very bloody quickly. As I watched the gem oscillate up and down inside what looked like a containment field, I couldn't help but feel as though it was watching me. Waiting for something. I looked it up and down. I wasn't a huge tech-nerd like some of my prior colleagues, but as I understand it, the field was similar to that used by Vahlen in her, ahem, experiments.

I walked up to the gem, slowly. Images of that god forsaken ship, hundreds of meters below the surface of the ocean came flooding back to me. The corridors that stretched on. The mindless drones repairing it. I stopped, less than a metre away from it.

 _Could it know what I was thinking?_

I watched it oscillating; rising and falling inside the small chamber. The chill was still with me and I could feel a small bead of sweat roll down the back of my shirt. To Hell with this, I thought and turned around. That's when I heard it. Barely a whisper.

 _Cain._

I paused and looked back at the gem. It remained as it had. Motionless, save the perpetual rise and fall. I moved on. Back to my quarters. This was something I needed to raise with my new-found boss. Does he really expect such a thing like this to be safe on board? I needed answers. I turned away from the direction of my quarters and headed straight for the bridge. It didn't take long to get there. When I arrived, Ghazakhull was beating a sectoid against a wall. I wasn't sure what infraction the alien had committed, nor did I particularly care to find out. As I approached, the General turned around to face me.

"Ah, Cain, how are you my dear boy?" He asked, dropping the grey, lifeless carcass.

"Fine." I said, approaching the hulking mass of my new boss. "The training goes well."

"So I've heard." The General said, grin stitched across his face. He looked towards to smear he had made. "Don't suppose you can do anything about these whelps?"

"Not even if I was given god like abilities from a giant tentacle monster with an infinite number of eyes."

"I thought as much." Ghazakhull said. "How can I help you?" The general said, taking in the view of his bridge.

"I wanted to ask you something. About what's in the cargo hold." He paused and turned to me slowly. The expression on his face would have been comical if it wasn't for the fact if was utterly terrifying.

"You didn't touch The Gem did you?" He asked., very directly.

"Gods no. Do you think I'm insane?" He nodded to himself. "Thanks. But no, I didn't do touch it. I am curious as to why you have something like that on our ship, however."

"Orders, Cain. Orders. The Ethereal High Council has decided that this ship is to be the guardian of that… thing. So far, all we've been told to do is keep it safe and process any human prisoners that come this way." He looked a little apprehensive, as much as a muton can, anyway.

"Define _process_." I said cautiously.

"I don't know the exact method of which it takes place, but we set the prisoners down in front of the gem and wait. It only takes a few moments or so, then they're pacified and willing to serve."

"You're joking!" I laughed, not sure I was believing what I was hearing.

"That is it, Cain. You wanted to know. Now I have told you." Ghazakhull said, stretching and puffing out his chest. Clearly, he wasn't a fan of the subject, not to mention that it was on this very ship in the first place.

"Thank you, General, that's all I wanted to know." The general grunted an acknowledgement. I looked around the dwellings I was in. "So, what's the mission?" I asked, eager to change the subject, to which Ghazakhull was more than willing.

"We've been sent our orders from the Ethereal High council. One of their own has abandoned its post and is now looking at recruiting the help of your XCOM."

"Not _my_ XCOM, Ghaza, not anymore." I chimed in.

"Too right, Cain. My apologies. As I was saying. They've broken off and are now looking to work with the humans. It goes without saying that preventing this is vital to our occupation of the world. Specifically, the Americas. They have cloaked their ship from most scanners, however they've failed to take into account the schematics of this ship."

"So… what? The plan is to go in and kill them?"

"Precisely. Assassination, Cain. Hunting some of the most dangerous creatures." His toothy grin shone towards me.

"Now that, I very much look forward to! How are you planning to attack?" I asked.

"That's where you come in." He said. The puzzled look on my face must have been amusing to him because he started to chuckle. "I have at my disposal a large variety of troops aboard this ship. You claim to be a soldier and a leader. Now you will prove it.".

 _Well shit_. I wasn't exactly planning on this, but hey ho. When life gives you lemons…

"Very well. Tell me about the ship we're facing. Numbers. Speeds. Size. Anything and everything."

"It's all on here." Ghazakhull said, gesturing to a nearby console. I moved over to it. I'd been watching the aliens interact with similar devices before and it seemed straight forward. I filed through as much of it as I could and began to devise my plan.

"How long do I have?" I asked, not looking up from the screens?

"Three hours. The journey time to get to…" He tapped the screen. "How do you pronounce this?"

"Mexico."


End file.
